“Paying Our Respects – 26th January 2012″

Today we remember our Indigenous brothers and sisters who have been murdered, beaten, raped, diseased, displaced, ignored and forgotten for 224 years.

We remember that they met here peacefully on this midden mound whose name we no longer know.

We remember that here they rested, discussed and resolved problems that the different clans of Quandamooka (Moreton Bay) encountered for thousands of years.

We remember that we are standing on land which they believed could not be owned by any one person but only looked after by the clan / their people – i.e. entrusted in guardianship for all time.

We remember that people belonged to the land but that the land did not belong to all people.

We remember that as a many Nationed peoples, they were invaded, and, that the land was never lawfully settled by the non-Indigenous peoples as no treaties were ever signed with the original inhabitants, as no attempts were made to protect the original languages and culture, and that the original people’s presence was never acknowledged in any meaningful way.

Today we remember that choosing this day as the national day of the country is an insult to the surviving Indigenous Australians and disrespects the Indigenous people who died and suffered over the last 224 years. We look forward to a time when this county’s national day is inclusive of all Australians, when its flag represents all Australians and its Head Of State is answerable only to Australians.

Yet again we had the whole park to ourselves as we read this out loud and reflected on the day. None of the current locals care to remember that the park is the burial ground of the Indigenous people’s sea shell middens.

Regards – Vasilios Theodorakis – January 2012

No inflicting of pain or suffering on others? Maybe. No death and dying? Possibly. No temptation to sever our communion with the Source – God? Definitely.

Now add to this metaphysical equation that “time” is not a natural facet of how the universe was constructed (i.e. in the beginning there was no time) and is in fact a symptom of moving away from the Source. Then finally, and because of the overwhelming negativity of time (death and decay), let’s assume that it and the dark forces are intimately connected – i.e. time is an extension of their activity in and on the universe.

If you happen to agree with this train of thought, what does it all mean? For starters, we’re stuck with the parasitic nature of the dark forces because we are trapped in time and inadvertently exist in the same realm as they do. That our struggle against them will continue until we exit time and/or the universe unravels and re-ravels itself (is transfigured) and time removed from the equation. And, that the best any of us can do, is maintain the struggle for order while trying to do the “right thing” by all living beings. In the end, this is, and will always be our greatest weapon against the bodiless (incorporeal) entities that target the weak minded, and try to use us as both instruments of mayhem, and sources of God’s uncreated energies.

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2011

Looking at the date of my last post, its obvious that something went wrong, but let’s not dwell on the past and notions of morbidity. Let’s just accept, that 2011 was not one of my better years, and that I need to aim for a more realistic posting regime.

One creative process that has worked against me is my preference for pencil and paper (notebook) over word-processor. All my ideas and first drafts come to me in this analogue format. In fact I have a notebook full of social commentaries that were written after the last blog entry but never typed up and uploaded.

So here’s hoping that I find a way to convert my hand written material into digital text in a more systematic way. Let’s just say – “Good Day and Good Riddance”! to 2011 and “Hello and Let’s Begin”! to 2012. ;)

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – November 2011

The other night, while catching the train home, I decided to carry out an ad hoc survey and count who wasn’t using a device that had them attached via auditory umbilical cords to a little metal box. Of the 12 people I could see, 10 were plugged in! Now don’t get me wrong – I’m no luddite – I need technology and the internet to earn an income, but what’s happened to down time / quite time / reflection time or God forbid, prayer time! It’s as if the general public – and its not just the young – find it impossible to cope with the absence of noise, let alone listening to their own thoughts!

These sorts of observations, often get me wishing for a crystal ball that can look into the future and supply me with non-fictional information which I can use for fictional story lines. Our technological developments are now becoming stranger than fiction. The fact that so many people in public spaces, present as zombies being feed their daily programming, is a reality staight out of the twilight zone. I doubt Rod Serling could have come up with a weirder idea.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – June 2011

Please bring back GUIs – Graphical User Interfaces that make sense. Mac OS 7.1 or Mac OS 7.6 did just fine, even Windows 3.1 made some sense in regards to applications, files and folders. Our current (operating systems) OSs make no sense at all in relation to real world analogies. Its no wonder people get lost in the latest Mac OS X and Windows 7 menus. So many friends and relatives over the age of 75 have just given up in regards to digital technology, and those who haven’t, are constantly on the phone in need of OS support. ;)

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – May 2011

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – May 2011

I’ve got to say, I have always loved TOS because of this belief in the good of all individuals (and professions). Belief in a good that offers up hope for humanity’s future, not pessimism. Gene Roddenberry (TOS producer/writer) had quite an optimistic vision for our species. If only real doctors would take a page out of his fictional doctor’s book, and ask their patients – “how do you feel”? What a difference that would make to the doctor’s often invasive and unnecessary procedures. Just talking to the patient and asking them such a simple question, could make all the difference to the patient’s medical history and in turn, to their life!

In the meantime, as we wait for medicine to grow out of it’s Spanish Inquisition phase, thank goodness for Bones’ timeless dialog and banter with his patients – especially Kirk. This fictional interaction, still brings a smile to my face in regards to what may come to pass in the far distant future – a future, where hospital doctors boldly go where no one has gone before. ;)

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – May 2011

What makes the death even more tragic, is that Ruby also died this year. Unfortunately, I didn’t know Ruby all that well. Lilly who I did get to know, had a body that was badly worn and withered but she remained active even in her old age. Lilly lived and died the way I wish I could live and die – active until the moment one lays down their head and passes away.

The remaining triplet Fiona, who I also don’t know too well, is of course lost without her other two siblings. I can’t imagine the loneliness she must feel. Helen and I will continue to support her as best we can until her time comes. Until the deaths of her sisters, Fiona had not spent a day apart from them.

In regards to the triplets’ leader, Ruby – Eternal be her memory.

In regards to my withered and energetic friend, Lilly – Eternal be her memory.

In regards to the trio’s survivor, Fiona – please keep her in your thoughts and/or prayers. May her time come as peacefully as Lilly’s and may she not be crushed by the loneliness she now carries since the other triplets’ departures.

The story of their life should really be told – it’s an inspiration to all “students of life”.

Regards – Vasilios Theodorakis – May 2011

I’m pleased to say, the blog’s stats show its readership continues to (patiently) revisit the site, even though nothing has gone up in all this time. I thank each and everyone of you for your support and hope to make it worth your while for having stuck with this blog.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – May 2011

The post operative care I received however – now that’s another story! Had I not discharged myself from the hospital when I did, I would now be in real trouble with my immuno-suppression . All hale the ongoing incompetence of Queensland Health – the clinical and hygiene risk patients are put through is something to behold! If you ever have to deal with this bureaucracy, keep your wits about you. Always check the hygiene practices of staff, what medications they’re administering and what procedures they intend to carry out – and never, ever be afraid to advocate or say no to their “carefree approach” to your well being.

In light of my recent experience, I now have grave concerns for patients who cannot, or will not advocate for themselves in a context where “duty of care” is less important than whether a doctor or the department might be sued. Over the years, I’ve witnessed a lot of questionable behaviour in hospitals, but even I was surprised by the number of junior doctors whose standard response to questions (about one’s own medical status) began with the following – “Legally, I can’t answer that question for you!” It seems its now easier to leave medical incompetence in place and “lawyer oneself up” rather than improve patient safety and care.

On a more positive note and in spite of what I experienced after the operation, I am genuinely grateful for the brilliant work carried out by the neuroradiology team. Their compassion, communication and skill cannot be faltered, even if the system in which they work leaves a lot to be desired.

All things going well, I look forward to resuming this blog as of next week. Thank you for all your well wishes during my convalesces – they were much appreciated.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – February 2011

“Paying Our Respects – 26th January 2011″

Today we remember our Indigenous brothers and sisters who have been murdered, beaten, raped, diseased, displaced, ignored and forgotten for 223 years.

We remember that they met here peacefully on this midden mound whose name we no longer know.

We remember that here they rested, discussed and resolved problems that the different clans of Quandamooka (Moreton Bay) encountered for thousands of years.

We remember that we are standing on land which they believed could not be owned by any one person but only looked after by the clan / their people – i.e. entrusted in guardianship for all time.

We remember that people belonged to the land but that the land did not belong to all people.

We remember that as a many Nationed peoples, they were invaded and that the land was never lawfully settled by the non-Indigenous peoples, as no treaties were ever signed with the original inhabitants, as no attempts were made to protect the original languages and culture, and that the original people’s presence was never acknowledged in any meaningful way.

Today we remember that choosing this day as the national day of the country is an insult to the surviving Indigenous Australians and disrespects the Indigenous people who died and suffered over the last 223 years. We look forward to a time when this county’s national day is inclusive of all Australians, when its flag represents all Australians and its Head Of State is answerable only to Australians.

Yet again we had the whole park to ourselves as we read this out loud and reflected on the day. None of the locals care to remember that the park is the burial ground of the indigenous people’s shell middens.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – January 2011

So much still to be said, but I know if something does go wrong, another will eventually step forward and say what I had hoped to say.

All things going well though, this blog will resume in February 2011. If there are complications – my wife will add a closure post to this site.

You have all my hopes for the future,

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – January 2011

“Why are we here?”
“We are here to add a new shade of colour to the rainbow of life.”

This was written and shared with friends and family in the late 1980s.

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

The saying was part observation (of past circumstances) and part motivation (positive self talk and encouragement). It was obviously hobbled together by a child, when you look at its grammatical structure, but it worked and worked well. At the time, the mantra helped me excel in whatever I tried to do, despite my dysfunctional environment and against all odds.

The saying went something like this:
Nothing comes easy,
Yet nothing is impossible!

If you correct for the use of “nothing”, it meant…
No accomplishment comes easy,
Yet no accomplishment is impossible!

Something so simple, yet it placed me on a magic carpet of self confidence which lasted a full 5 years. Damn all the people I encountered from 1985 onwards who convinced me to abandon my own mantra! Shame on you, and shame on me for allowing you to take away my hopes and dreams!

Truth be told though – by the time I got to Uni, I fell into the same trap I had witnessed most of my high school friends succumb to, and that was, wanting to do well without actually doing the work! I forgot the first part of my own mantra, i.e. that no thing comes easy.

Unfortunately, what often follows a desire for reward without effort, is blaming everything and everyone when things don’t go your way. Once I got into this mode of operation, I became the consummate victim. It’s so easy to go from success to failure, if you start to think people owe you something. Looking back, it’s a shame I wasn’t able to maintain the humility of that 13 year old who never did learn that he couldn’t accomplish something. And why? Because he was always far too busy working towards that accomplishment! ;)

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

It flabbergasts me – it’s just dumb luck that these people were born into a well resourced and rich country. They could just as easily have been born in a country where ten people live in a single room dwelling with dirt floors. Do 70% of the earth’s human population deserve that sort of lifestyle? And were an individual from that earthen floor dwelling to work “really” hard, they would still only be able to build an earthen floored dwelling!

None of us “deserve” anything! There is no rhyme or reason as to where we’re born on the planet. It just happens that some of us have access to amazing opportunities but there is no justification for that good fortune!

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

During the last 20 years, I’ve had the good fortune of knowing a few of the “accepting” young and their families. In those instances, parents provided the space for the rapid evolution of their child, who invariably died with a level of wisdom and insight far beyond their years.

I’ve also known families, who tried to hide what was happening from their terminally ill child – an approach which really didn’t help. The child almost always died in a state of fear, indirectly fostered by the parent’s own denial.

Then there’s adults, and sadly I’ve known more adults that greet the reaper in a state of denial than acceptance. From what I’ve seen, children, if allowed, accept their reality much better than “grown ups”. For example, the last gentleman that my wife and I farewelled, continued to believe he “could not die”, right up until his last days.

We have truly messed up as a society, to allow death to be so perfectly removed from reality that even when we’re dying, we can’t be honest with ourselves. Then again, I don’t suppose you’d think your life could come to an end, if you drove around in flashy cars, lived in McMansions and had enough disposable income to replace all your furniture every 2 or 3 years!

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

But today? Today, without a string of letters after your name, the idea of contributing to human insight is “technically” off limits. So what do people like me do – people who’s minds come up with notion after notion? Find a means of getting ideas out into the world without 7 years of academic specialisation in every field of knowledge! After years of thrashing around inside my “degree limited” cage, I’ve come to accept that the only legitimate avenue for people like me is writing, and in my case, Science Fiction writing.

So, if you like the ideas appearing in my blog’s commentaries and poetry, I hope you take the time to investigate my Science Fiction material when it finally gets a public release – the short stories and novels I’m working on contain all the ideas I’ve come up with in the last 30 years. :)

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

Did it begin when we were hunter gathers and got into a habit of just leaving things lying around because they naturally decayed. Then, when we started using materials that didn’t break down, like masonry, we had to bury them so that our environment didn’t become an eyesore. A progression from a nomadic to a settled lifestyle maybe?

Or are we just genetically lazy? i.e. After building something, using something and abandoning something – instead of cleaning up after ourselves, reusing materials or recycling, we cover them up with soil, pretend they never existed and build more on top of that soil! Just look at our oldest cities – places like Rome. New York, etc., now sit tens of metres higher than when they were first settled.

Whatever the reason, it has two far reaching consequences:
1 – Our refuse and rubble has allowed us to study our past, which has to be a good thing in terms of learning from our mistakes.
2 – It is not sustainable. No other creature, leaves behind (buries) the amount of waste we do. It isn’t natural and if it was, the planet would already be covered by a billion years of concrete!

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

Yet another stay of execution has been granted,
And for now – I walk free!

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

From the handful of relatives, to my wife and close friends – people who I see face to face and who are there for me as I am there for them – not through some impersonal, superficial, digital connection. So I say, “Hit the internet kill switch Barack Obama” and let’s see how many of those social network participants have actual, reciprocating friendships. 500 friends online doesn’t amount to squat come the real challenges of life!

But I digress – I didn’t always have such genuine people in my life. For the longest time, like so many of us, I surrounded myself with people that never reciprocated interest or concern for me. I was so busy investing time and energy in these people that I didn’t notice that if I stopped, nothing was being invested in me. It took a long time to learn that a relationship needed to be reciprocated, whether that be with a relative, friend or partner.

So when things were at their worst, in the early 1990s, and I was forced to stop investing in people – primarily because of the lengthy hospital stays – it dawned on me that not a single person I had thought were friends, were friends!

It took many more years to excise most of these people from my life, and to this day, its an ongoing struggle to not fall into the trap of one way connections. (There are still 2 or 3 people, I do this with, and that’s because they did support me either financially or emotionally for a brief period of time in the 1990s – the rest of these anthropomorphic mannequins are long gone.)

The interesting thing is that the truly important people are just there for you, as you are for them – the “humble servant”, in the best sense of the Orthodox Christian faith. While those who think they’re important, are never there for anyone other than themselves – and that really amounts to nothing in the grand scheme of things. Human islands, I have come to know, do not survive the rising tide of life’s complications!

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

The author of the week is the great American poet: Walt Whitman.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – October 2010

Why did this colleague share her ordeal with me? At the time I was an overly zealous young social worker and notorious for touting the virtues of Orthodox Christianity. Her experiences and pain very quickly brought my naivety about religion to an end. Interestingly, she never blamed the Orthodox Christian Faith for what happened to her. She believed that no genuine religious person could have done what those Serbian soldiers had done.

Her story did get me thinking about the sociological basis to law and order, and helped me come up with the following idea in the 1990s.

If an individual has genuinely internalised a peace loving religion and uses that religion to inform their conscience they cannot carry out such horrendous acts – even if society falls apart. Why? Because they carry around within themselves a sense of right and wrong.

On the other hand, if an individual has not internalised their religion and does not have an internal yard stick directing what is right and wrong, their morality is governed by external restraints i.e. like a society’s laws. Therefore, were a society to fall into anarchy, as Yugoslavia did, and were most of its citizens secular with no internal yard sticks of right and wrong, then its not hard to see how individuals without a personal morality could perpetuate the barbaric acts that were carried out on my friend’s village.

Unfortunately, as I’m no academic, I never carried out any serious research to back up my theory. Many refugee horror stories however, tend to support its premise, even if that premise makes people who lead secular lifestyles in stable societies like Australia very uncomfortable.

So my question to the good secular atheist is this: you live your life based on what external forces tell you is right and wrong i.e. the laws of society. What happens if those laws are suddenly removed, and you have no law courts or police officers telling you what to do or what not to do? What will you use as your reference point? What will pass as “right” and what will pass as “wrong” and who will decide it for you? Or do you think you are some how different to those Serbian soldiers who suddenly realised they no longer had to answer to anybody or anything! I fear that most people who are not bound by a code of ethnics, drawn from a higher power, revert very quickly to their animal state – we are not as advanced as we’d like to think!

Despite how untrendy it is to adhere to a religion and internalise a moral yard stick, I fear it’s the only thing that will save civilisation in the long term. Shocking case studies, such as those that occurred during the break up of Yugoslavia or the civil wars in Africa, add weight to my theory and the notion that just being “a good person” really means nothing. Nothing that is, unless an individual’s morality is drawn from God and written in their heart!

Post Update: 26/11/2010
A friend recently challenged me on part of this post’s premise, and on reflection, I have to concede that internalising morality and ethics need not be based on religion. The important thing is that one’s moral yardstick is (or has become) an internal construct and is not based on external enforcement! In this way even the secular can maintain law and order even if their social system has collapsed. Thanks for highlighting this John M.

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

Despite me not being in the best of health, I couldn’t help but fall on the ground in a fit of laughter or was that just me chocking in disbelief – I can’t tell the difference anymore. :) For those of you unaware as to what is happening in the city of Brisbane, we’ve been living under a regime of water restrictions, despite the fact that our dams are almost full. This week saw the dams, not only reach capacity, but the water authorities had to open the flood gates and empty an enormous amount of water into the Brisbane river which in turn spills out into Moreton Bay. As I write this piece, water is being wasted in huge amounts by the government while the average person isn’t allowed to irrigate fruit and vegetables on their own land because of an ad hoc daily water quota!

What is truly incredulous, is that our leader is unashamedly making decisions based on polls and ignoring common sense. One does not have to be a rocket scientist to understand that if the dams are full as we enter the rainy season, there is no longer a catchment mechanism to prevent Brisbane’s natural flood plains from being inundated with water. If anything, the premier should be encouraging people to use as much water as possible in the lead up to the rainy season – maybe even temporarily reduce the cost of water, so that the dam levels are lower and thus prevent a 1974 style flood. Such a decision, based on compassion for your constituency, might also ensure the water is put to good use instead of being flushed out into the bay.

Unfortunately, our politicians are currently incapable of adjusting their position to deal with changed circumstances and the general population will suffer the consequences.

So my question to the premier is this – Where’s your so called leadership Ms Bligh? I fear if you keep making stupid decisions based on what you think people want, not only will you and your right wing labour party be annihilated at the next election, your lack of common sense will endanger the state’s citizens!

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

Today of course, we have career athletes who earn a good living out of athletics – a natural development I suppose when you look at the economics of other aspects of our society. In itself there’s nothing wrong with earning a living out of what you’re good at – what is a problem however, is when someone is determined to earn a living out of it and ignore the consequences of those actions on other people.

Lets take for instance the situation in Delhi. By simply participating in the current Commonwealth Games, people are indirectly supporting the fact that the local government chose to spend 15 billion (US) dollars on a two week event rather than create housing for millions of homeless people in that city. Attending, participating and following a sporting event under these circumstances, is sending a message to the Indian government that it’s OK to prioritise a transient thing over the life long well being of your own citizens.

Obviously, it could be argued that this also applies to any other field of endeavour, not just sport. In order to avoid being entangled in such an ethical mess, you need to think through how your action or inaction cascades and effects others. After living with my own head in the sand for far too many years, I now have a very basic rule of thumb that guides my social activism and that is – “if you ignore your effect on your surroundings, you are definitely part of the problem!” – a play on – “…if you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the problem.” [1977, C. McFadden, Serial xxvi.]

In living this approach, I don’t think you need to construct some grand solution and then be a part of that construction. All you need to do is tread lightly and minimise any detrimental effect you have on your fellow human beings, other creatures and your environment. If we adhere to this one thing, then any of us can participate in a sporting event, or any other event for that matter, with a clear conscience.

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

This week’s pieces include two very recent commentaries and one short poem about the industrial and inhumane slaughter of domestic animals in Western countries.

The poem is called – Oceans Of Misery
The commentaries include – Am I An I Or A We? and Living In The Grey.

There’s no author of the week for this site update but I’ll have one again next time.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – October 2010

We are unfortunately surrounded by institutions and personalities who claim a holier than thou stance, yet in reality do despicable things to other beings or have despicable personal lives. There are of course the very good (the saints) and the very bad (the demons) – both of which walk amongst us – but most humans fall somewhere in between. I’m definitely one of these middle dwellers.

Being neither a particularly good nor a particularly bad person, my life continues to be lived in the grey, no matter how hard I try to improve myself. I therefore think the best any of us can hope for is to be honest about who and what we are on a day to day basis. To pretend otherwise wastes everyone’s time and doesn’t allow for genuine improvement.

Keeping in mind this general shortcoming, I strongly believe having a single human role model is not only a nonsense but down right dangerous. No human being is that Godly and should not be placed on too high a pedestal. The God-Man i.e. Christ, is of course the exception to the rule.

In spite of this, at least one thing can always be learned from every individual. To not look for that lesson in each day’s interpersonal encounters is a temporal tragedy.

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

Terra bound screams keeping aliens at bay.

Murder of sentience on a massive scale.

Humanity will answer for all that it’s done.

Losing its right to its current existence.

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

Its subject matter is an imaginary encounter with my childhood role model – my great grandmother – Malamati, and talks a lot about fundamental hopes for the future.

The author of the week is the 70s and the 80s TV scriptwriter Glen A. Larsen who developed stories like Battlestar Galactica and Knight Rider.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – October 2010

In addition to identifying what was going on, it took many years to find a local specialist that I trusted and who might be able to do something about the situation. My next problem was that I didn’t like the sound of injecting titanium coils or glue into my brain in order to block off the fistula. Especially, since no one could guarantee the toxic side effects of the glue. And so, I lived with the noise for almost 15 years – which probably did more damage to my mental health than any glue would have done to my body.

In January of this year though, under extreme hot weather conditions and while clearing rubble at our fence line, I developed another clot which thrombosed within the fistula and blocked off the vessel. For the first time in 15 years I could hear silence – it was magical and a small miracle considering the clot hadn’t travelled elsewhere in my body.

Fast forward now to Tuesday 7th September 2010 and yet again I had to defend myself, my wife and our property against the neighbourhood nut job. This time he decided to use his roof to terrorise my wife over the fence! Fortunately the situation was yet again addressed by the police, but not before I had to raise my voice far too loudly, maintain my blood pressure in a raised state for far too long and experience adrenaline surges that continued for many days after the incident.

Within 48 hours of defending our home, the therapeutic clot blocking off the fistula had been dislodged and the vessel had reopened. So now I’m back to listening to my heart beat 24 hours a day! After so much silence though, I’m really not coping with the noise and my wife and I have decided to move forward with the artificial embolism. There are many medical risks involved with the process but after experiencing the stillness of silence for 8 months, I cannot go back to listening to and waiting for my heartbeat to stop!

So wherever you find yourself, try to contemplate the nature of an individual whose sole purpose in life is to traumatise and derail other people’s lives. Watching this individual in action, has reminded me of how capable our kind is of pure acts of evil. So much for us being children of God – agents of Satan maybe – but children of God? I have my doubts.

In spite of this, my wife and I continue to move forward as the assaults are again extended to our physical selves. Wish us well in the battles ahead and if you’re a religious person, keep us in your prayers.

Regarding this blog I’ll leave a final posting when I head into hospital. All things going well, I’ll resume the postings as soon as they let me out. If anything goes wrong however, my wife Helen will post a closing commentary to this site. In the meantime, I’m finally back to editing and hopefully completing the upload of my first poetry anthology – “Growing Up”. There’s a handful of poems to get through still and I’m only 12 months behind schedule. ;)

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

The current paradigm, that goes back to the late 1980′s, believes all you need to do is get an education or be trained for a job i.e. Vocational Education. The notion of eduction for life and eduction for innovation went out the window years ago. Dreamers and visionaries no longer have a place in Australian society – then again, maybe they never did – and you can see this, when you compare the budgets for the Arts and Pure Sciences against the applied fields and economics. History, Philosophy, Literature, etc. are viewed as irrelevant because they don’t lead to a direct job. Pure Mathematics, Physics, Palaeontology, etc. aren’t valued because it’s thought they don’t accomplish anything economically. The irony is, that without people having studied in these fields and “mused” over “irrelevant” questions, insights and discoveries which have improved society and driven technology would never have happened.

Take for instance your little USB memory stick – this device came out of pure research in solid state physics. At the time of its discovery, i.e. many decades ago, solid state theory had no practical use for the idea, but if those researchers hadn’t been allowed to pursue their research for the sake of knowledge alone, you wouldn’t have your little storage device today!

This issue was recently covered in ABC’s Radio National – Big Ideas presentation titled: Weaving the Rainbow: The Poet and The Scientist Speak. The presentation included Les Murray and Barry Jones talking about where Education has gone wrong in Australia and how there is no vision for the future.

Unfortunately our nation’s politicians don’t seem to understand that one needs to pay more attention to the nation’s thinkers – i.e. our thinkers are the true visionaries, guides and seers into the future. Instead of taking on board what people like Jones and Murray have said over the years, the current PM has down graded education to such an extent, that we now don’t have a Ministry Of Education in the new parliament – just 3 smaller ministries preparing people for jobs! We are well and truly on the way to becoming the region’s Eurasian trash. All the country will be good for in the long run, is handing over resources and doing menial jobs that drive the immediate economy.

I therefore fear, thinking and dreaming will have to be done elsewhere – God help Australia’s creative young who spend all their time “musing” on things that are deemed irrelevant! Not only will they be unable to develop their ideas into robust theories but they’ll have no means of earning a living from their intellectual passion!

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

And finally, I can’t let the digital day pass without wishing my wife a happy wedding anniversary. Its been quite a journey but one I can’t imagine having shared with anyone else. All my love Hally.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – September 2010

Until we accept that indigenous history is also the nation’s history, and until the average person on the street understands and is proud of the fact that Australia still holds the oldest continuous cultures and society in the world – we will never get past the current illegitimacy of the nation. i.e. That since colonialists came to this land and occupied it without compensation and treaties, the business of settlement was never completed.

As we’re stuck with what has happened and as we’re unable to change the past, we should at least ensure the future is based on uniting our pre and post colonialist history in a just, honest and pride inspiring way. I look forward to the day when non-aboriginal kids wish they were indigenous and aboriginal kids are so full of pride they almost burst whenever the topic of their heritage is raised. What a day that will be and what a great nation we will have become – despite the mistakes of the past!

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

Two other commentaries written this week include:
Contact From The Future and
Creating A Nest

Finally, the author of the week is the Australian poet – Judith Wright. An incredibly passionate person, she was also a strong environmental and aboriginal rights advocate. Judith Wright died in 2000, and like Oodgeroo Noonuccal I had an opportunity to meet her but never followed through before she died. Yet another example of me not seizing the day!

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – September 2010

In addition to this, we’ve removed ourselves from the cycles of the natural world, swapped the nest for dependence on vast societies and allowed ourselves to get pregnant irrespective of whether we have access to food and shelter – please note, I’m not talking about women who get sexually assaulted here – that’s different. What I’m talking about, is couples who do not have the resources to raise children.

Living in smaller communities, unexpected offspring were usually catered for by the larger family grouping. The problem we now face however, is that modern societies tend to be apathetic, hostile and not orientated to look after their constituent’s babies – not unless they’re forced to – i.e. procreation is the individual’s problem! Groupings have become too large and impersonal, ideology too self centred and people uneducated in the need to gather the resources to build their own nests ahead of time. As a consequence, those unprepared for children, fall through the safety nets of society as there’s often no family or community to depend on anymore.

As a social worker, I saw this happen again and again – people having children first and worrying about a roof over their heads later. The instability and stress this has on kids is shocking, and having to deal with it on a daily work basis, scared the hell out of me. So much so, that I decided I would not bring a child into the world unless the nest was built and ongoing resources were available.

I therefore strongly believe we need to get back to basics when it comes to our young i.e. unless we have first built the nest – don’t lay the egg! Laying and balancing an egg on a branch can only end in disaster! How stupid has our species become! I really don’t see the logic in viewing this aspect of our lives as human evolution – if anything, its a backwards step for our species!

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

Those of us who choose to do nothing will in turn, never change the course of history, let alone communicate with it. Alternatively, those of us who do something – no matter how small – will increase their legacy exponentially across time. One’s investment in action (or thought) deposits the principle (genetic or memetic) in creation’s temporal bank account. i.e. Once deposited (in time) an action or idea can never be withdrawn and therefore accumulates like compound interest for the rest of the universe’s life. This means growth is guaranteed and “the filling of the void” really can and will take care of itself – that is – as long as we try.

In the end though, only God can track the total effect of us twirling in a field singing his praises or the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in the sun – not even the grandest A.I. computer will ever track all the variables involved or their cascading consequences on existence. So, until we reach God’s status of Omniscience we should console ourselves with the fact that everything does count and that the only way to move forward with life is to live it in such a way that guarantees “there is a tomorrow” – not one that guarantees there is no tomorrow!

N.B. The concept of Memes is one of the few things the atheist Richard Dawkins has come up with that’s useful to everyone. Ironically most of his material is about his “belief” in science not its “facts”. This being the case, its strange how he’s unable to see that while he bags other religions, his own approach to knowledge has turned science into a religion as well! The fact that Theists like me use his memetics material on a daily basis must really rub him up the wrong way. ;)

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

Special thanks go out to my friends John M. and Sofronios E. who’ve repeatedly contacted me, checked I was OK and enquired as to when my next posting would go up – the prompting, my brothers, did get me moving again – thank you. :)

The site now has the following additions:
1 – Save The Planet - 7th May 2010
2 – A New PM – 25th June 2010
3 – Where We’re Up To – 2nd July 2010
4 – Xenophobes Aren’t Racist – 9th July 2010
5 – Window To The Visible World – 16th July 2010
6 – Window To The Invisible World – 23th July 2010
7 – Privilege Is The Western Lifestyle – 30th July 2010
8 – The Sacrament Of Story – 6th August 2010
9 – Helen’s Blog – 13th August 2010

My highlighted author for the week is – Sun Tzu, who wrote the “Art Of War”. Historically his writings are sometimes attributed to his descendant as well as himself – his descendent being Sun Bin. Irrespective of who really wrote the military treatise, its approach to strategy is not only useful for war but human social life as well.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – August 2010

Like Mr Malouf, I believe this defines us. There are few countries in the world where elections occur in a stable and safe way. So few in fact, that we are almost unique – especially when you factor in that every adult is obligated to vote. Our compulsory voting system ensures the elected government is a genuine reflection of the view of the people. Not even the US or the UK can match how our parliament is a true refection of the wishes of “all” its citizens.

Yet in spite of this, we will always have the wingers and those who think that voting is an infringement on their “right to choose to vote” and an inconvenience on their time. If these wingers had to swap places with citizens in Rwanda, (where people risk having limbs hacked off while trying to vote) I’m sure they would quickly appreciate what we have here in Australia.

As for me – I look forward to revisiting the cardboard booths and voting in three years time again. It’s the one thing about our nation that continues to fill me with pride.

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

For me, the important days of reflection can be quite disastrous, especially if I don’t plan and work towards them. My days of reflection are all anniversaries associated with PTSD events, occur throughout the year and are quite numerous. The 20th August is the biggest of these, as its the day I physically died in 1991.

2010 therefore marks 19 years since the medical profession, family and friends gave up on me walking out of one of Brisbane’s most decrepit hospitals – the old P.A. (pre-renovations). Needless to say, virtually all the people from that period of my life have now been excised. I’ve come to believe that people who give up on you, don’t deserve to be included in your life.

Due to a genetic condition, that was finally diagnosed in 2000, I’ve always been predisposed to excessive blood clotting. At that time, August 1991, I had developed so many clots in the left lung that the lung appeared as one giant clot on all the M.R.I.s and X-Rays. Though placed on IV anticoagulants, the expectation was that some of the clots would break away from the lung and travel to the heart or brain – at which point I would die.

Ironically, none of the clots ever did break away. Instead, my near death experience was brought on by the incompetence of a Queensland Health junior doctor. This gentleman caused a massive bleed in my throat, by shoving a tube down my oesophagus far too violently. The loss of blood caused my blood pressure to drop to nothing, my heart to stop and the resuscitation team to move into overdrive.

10 minutes after my body shut down, they succeeded in reviving me. The first thing I heard as I came to was an elderly and senior doctor reassuring me that I would be OK now (– I never did get to thank this man for saving my life). In addition to the resuscitation team, the main thing that drove me to stay alive was fear and anger. Fear and anger that if I died, the real reasons as to how I ended up alone and in hospital would never be told. If I died, family and friends – who had abandoned me – would conveniently make up stories that painted themselves in a good light while describing my misfortune as some random and freak event. The fact that their actions had directly left me homeless, forced me to live out of my car while suffering extreme Ulcerative Colitis and ignored my malnutrition brought on by internal haemorrhaging and a lack of food – well, none of that mattered, even though my living conditions were later identified as having greatly contributed to what brought on the clotting. In their hands, these facts would never have seen the light of day. Admittedly, I over did it when I was finally released from hospital – telling everyone and anyone who would listen, as to how the actions of certain people (whom I had trusted) had almost cost me my life.

Since the 20th August 1991, much of my existence has felt like a scene from the movie “Gandhi” i.e. I’ve run a passive resistance campaign against the advances of the Grim Reaper and any obstructions life could toss at me. Just like Gandhi’s documented process of burning racial passes in South Africa i.e. where participants were beaten by police but continued to crawl towards the fire and toss in their passes; I’ve continued to crawl forward, no matter how slow life became and no matter how many things obstructed life’s path. Beaten and bloodied – sometimes literally and sometimes metaphorically – movement forward was often so slow it was non-existent. If nothing else, the process did prove that standing one’s ground against both the visible and invisible forces of nature is possible.

My message then, on this anniversary of reflection – i.e. what I now call my life day – is this: We all have it within ourselves to keep going no matter how difficult the circumstances get. Stubbornness (and the will to live) appears to be our evolutionary advantage as a species and raises its glorious head on both a personal and communal level as long as we allow it. I should also add, occasionally asking God to intercede on our behalf doesn’t go astray either. ;)

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

As a gift, I’m therefore developing and designing a new blog for her, where she can share these and other thoughts. The blog will be located at www.verbakel.org and will be called Helen Verbakel – On Life, Love and Laughter. I’ll let readers know, once the site goes live.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – August 2010

So with story, our sense of bonding was raised above and beyond that of preening, survival and reproduction. It allowed us to carry shared adventures and history across time and space. It firmly established the notion of culture around our early camp fires, and also let us know what others were thinking and feeling – i.e. it seeded empathy. Story did all this, in spite of the fact that our ancestors may have never met the people it described. It even allowed early humans to relate to people who had never existed. Of course, complex language was the precursor to story and without language (externalised thought), story would never have happened.

On a personal note, I find story and the places where story is told almost sacrosanct. For me, its forums are as hallowed as the life filled rainforest or the life giving liturgy. This perception has been with me for years and I often feel that something has been defiled, a sacred place desecrated, when developers shut down and demolish theatres and cinemas. This is something we are especially good at in the greater city of Brisbane – which now has no theatres left in the CBD!

In addition to this, as I’m descended from a long line of story tellers, I’ve been indoctrinated with its basic structure from a very young age. i.e. That story has to have a beginning, middle and end – otherwise what’s the point! Many supposed story tellers don’t understand these basics. i.e. in movies for example, some directors like to leave out crucial parts, like endings! What really upsets me about this approach is that my wife and I often hand over our hard earned cash to these film makers who don’t understand their own craft. Take “Inception” for instance which has the ultimate “artsy” non-ending! What sort of smart alec is this director Christopher Nolan who chose to finish the movie in this way? If we wanted to not have an ending to a story, we would tell each other such nonsensical tales for free! If someone pays you to tell a story, you have a moral obligation to do just that, otherwise give the patron back their money and stop masquerading as a modern day bard!

Despite the people who don’t understand the sanctity of story and story structure, there are many more story tellers who do. For those of us who cannot live without the telling of tales (each and every day of our lives), I am eternally grateful that the Christopher Nolans of the world are still the exception not the rule.

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

Even the poorest of the poor (leaving aside our indigenous brothers and sisters who’ve had to live in 3rd world conditions since Europeans arrived), in the worst suburbs of our cities, live better than your average person elsewhere in the world.

The pitiful federal election campaign that’s occurring, and the petty policies both parties are running, has yet again highlighted how ignorant Australians are in regards to how good life already is in this country!

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

The mysticism of iconography describes how the icon is simply a barrier that separates us from the person that resides in the invisible world (the world at the end of time), a previous moment in time or a place that may no longer exist.

If you accept this premise, observing people kissing icons starts to make sense. The people on the other side of the icon’s surface are literally there with the people greeting them – just like a living person would be. And just like the living, those in the icon can be greeted with a kiss – all that separates us is the pane of glass or the surface of the image. Just like all that separates us from the invisible world is death.

This notion however, is almost impossible to grasp by the Western mind which can’t cope with things existing outside of time and space. It also doesn’t help that Western thought no longer includes the invisible world in its interpretation of reality.

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

And to think, that as a child and adolescent, I would take a thousand questions to bed with me, each and every day. Questions that no one and nothing could answer and which are now resolved within a matter of seconds – minutes at most! For example: How old is the musician I just listened to? Where was that actor born? Is a company independent or owned by a multinational? How many bees in a beehive? What does a red gum look like? And does anyone know what happens after death?

I don’t know if this ability to see, hear or answer things instantly is a good or bad thing for our youth. I do know however, that I sleep easier now – not haunted by questions I haven’t been able to answer or by facts I haven’t been able to access. :)

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

Just take the current political discussions on asylum seekers. During the course of a week, the Labour Party and its new leader – someone that most people had come to believe was a moral individual – decided to take the line of absolving the country’s extremists and racists. These politicians publicly proclaimed that the “average” Australian – whatever that might be – were not “bad people” despite their heartless attitudes towards displaced individuals and the atrocious treatment of non-Anglo Australians!

Shame on you PM – any semblance of hope people like me had in people like you was instantly dashed! All of us will be voting “Green” from now on!

How will this country ever be guided and encouraged to become the nation it can be, when the only thing politicians care about is appealing to the worst of society – and doing so, just to get re-elected!

Unfortunately, as a country we have a long way to go in order to become a global role model – especially with the ongoing suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act. Then again, it probably doesn’t matter – by the time we get our act together, nationalism will have become obsolete anyway!

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

In 2007 this blog was started as a vehicle to spotlight the back log of poems, commentaries, short stories, etc,. that I’ve worked on since 1983. Despite a series of serious derailments I have managed to get a number of commentaries online as well as 88 poems in the last 3 years.

Its time to review the road map for the blog and identify what has worked and what hasn’t worked. Commentaries and poems – yes; short stories and novel material – no; audio versions of poems (when I’ve had the time) – yes; audio versions of everything else – no; links to favourite authors and websites – yes; commentaries and track-backs (pings) – no – spam has been a major issue throughout the life of the blog.

I think the format I’ve settled on, of at least one posting a week is well worth sticking with – it’s realistic and works, whether it’s a new commentary or a site update linking to an edited version of an old poem. I believe short stories and novel material will have to be left for print or ebook versions but I do think donations, poem sponsorship and major patrons will work with the material being uploaded. I hope to have the financial aspects of the blog up and running during the course of this year. Tied in with this, is my hope that the first anthology will go to print (via sponsorship and donations) during the 2010/2011 financial year.

What I do need to do is streamline the focus of the site and lose the grandeous idea of hugh numbers of categories such as: cartoons,childhood pieces,drawings and designs, scripts and songs. This should also make it easier for sponsors to pick clear pieces that link back to their own sites and tighten up the blog’s focus.

There are still many years worth of poems to upload, but a conservative aim of completing one anthology every 12 to 18 months is looking realistic. Once online, each anthology will be opened up to sponsorship and in turn the creation of a print version.

All things going well, the hope is to also offer print versions of short story anthologies and the novel I’ve been working on – sold via this blog.

As always, I’ll keep you posted.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – July 2010

As a left winger then, I’ve felt very disillusioned with Australian federal politics for some time now. I’ve inadvertently continued to vote for Labour though this led to a PM who was a little too right wing and non-Westminster/Federalist for my liking. Now I find, that even if I could put up with his right wing nonsense, I couldn’t put up with him ignoring our Westminster protocols of consultation. His executive approach to government left many people like me wondering how, in good conscience we would continue to vote for the Labour Party. My guess is most of us wouldn’t and many of us were getting ready to vote for the Greens.

If you compare democratic systems, the Westminster/Federalist approach we have in Australia is still the most stable and constructive form of government in the world. Anyone who tries to move too far away from its current approach does so at the constituent’s and nation’s peril. People have yet to invent a better and more stable form of government.

So yesterday my faith was restored, when the Westminster system won out over an individual’s ambitions. I therefore look forward to once again being able to vote for the Labour Party and wish the new PM all the best in her battles ahead. May she not only lead us well, but may she also protect the institution which has placed her on the pedestal on which she now sits.

Our political system is what makes this country so special, stable and safe. Thank goodness for the Federation’s robustness and the ability to replace leaders who do not perform.

As an aside, you can guarantee the hobbled parliamentary system in Queensland is the real reason why Queensland continues to suffer such ongoing corruption, even under the current Labour government. Take away the Upper House in a Westminster system and you take away fundamental checks and balances!

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

Unfortunately, in using this approach, life can pass you by and leave you wondering what in the world happened to a big chunk of your time. The problem of course is that self advancement doesn’t come in the form of a package, a pill or a person – it is a process initiated by oneself, carried out by oneself and fulfilled by oneself.

In my experience, genuine movement forward often emerges out of tragedy, desperation and finally, an understanding that only the self can help the self. We are ultimately alone in the world as no one can walk in the shoes that we already occupy. Those of us who learn this, usually get ahead, and those who don’t usually fall by the wayside.

Like many others, my greatest error in judgement (as a young man) was waiting for external help that never arrived. Needless to say, I was shocked when no one approached me and offered to address the issues that had buried me in a temporal ditch. Neither friends nor family tried to alleviate the problems that had developed – and why should they? The ditch I was in was my own and all those close to me had their own issues. To be given absolution without being able to systematically deconstruct, identify and address each aspect of a burden, does not lead to growth and personal evolution – it leads to a stunted existence. You have to remove as many obstacles obstructing your path, as is possible, before life can progress again.

In my case, once the core burdens had been removed, the things that did came to fruition, happened because I made them happen. This is a difficult truth to swallow, especially for someone who grew up thinking he could depend on others. I wish I could offer examples of how life might function differently, but I can’t, and unless you lead a particularly charmed existence, you will always have to do things for yourself. Either that, or you’ll have to accept that most things you’d like to accomplish, just won’t happen.

So – as the lads I grew up with used to say – “Get over yourself and get on with it!” You might just find, trying rather than hoping, accomplishes more than you could’ve ever imagined!

Dedication (For my whinging Gen Y brothers and sisters.)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

The label was not only a sign of fondness for the crazy grand son-in-law – who did everything far too slowly, it also summed up how Pop could get to the crux of a personality. He had a knack for finding a word or phrase that perfectly captured what someone was all about. In my case, how I couldn’t handle imposing on anyone. Pop’s long term advice in regards to my hang-up? – “Just relax Vas…, my food is your food…, just leave the money on the table after you’ve eaten!”

God bless you Jack, I’ll miss the banter! Until we meet again, look after yourself and Nan. Save me a piece of her sponge as the rest of us will be there with you soon enough. I look forward to that next pot of tea and our ongoing deliberations on how unnatural it is to rush anything – especially work!

Pop and Nan (Mona) had 7 children, 18 grandchildren, 18 great grandchildren and countless hangers-on like me. Not bad for a family that’s descended from Scottish immigrants who started out life in a tent on the beach at Port Melbourne (Victoria – Australia) in the 1850s.

Eternal be, his memory. Pop was born on April 1st 1919 and entered his repose on June 7th 2010.

My condolences go out to all the Grants in regards to his passing. Pop will be missed by each and everyone of us. He leaves behind countless wonderful memories and set the standard on how to live and what it means to be a gentleman.

Pop’s Eulogy (Text – PDF / 60kb)
Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – June 2010

My highlighted author for the week is: Octavia E Butler – a brilliant American Science Fiction writer who’s given us some amazing predictions about the future and some extraordinary alternative realities. Her death in 2006 was an absolute tragedy for the written arts.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – June 2010

Its form was born into this land and has belonged to this country for over 43 years. If individuals don’t understand that a non Anglo-Celtic name is as Australian as an Anglo-Celtic name, (or an Aboriginal name for that matter) then they’ve missed the whole point of this country.

Why do I still have to explain such a simple thing to supposedly “educated people”! Frankly, if they don’t get it – it’s their problem, not mine!

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

My highlighted author for the week is: Raj Patel – a writer with deep convictions to social and environmental justice. His latest book is – “The Value Of Nothing”

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – May 2010

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

The commentary is called: Good Friday 2010

The highlighted author for the week is: Henry David Thoreau – a poet, environmentalist and activist of the 19th Century.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – May 2010

The saddest part of the discovery was that the person forced my grandmother to sign over the rights to the land just before the matriarch of the family died! One has to wonder, what sort of character badgers a 93 year old woman on her death bed for the family’s inheritance! Instances like this, make me glad that I had very little to do with these people over the years.

The poem is called: Olive Grove

The highlighted author for the week is: Chrissie Hynde – though technically not a full time writer, her genuineness, song lyrics and written material on animal rights qualify her as an inspirational person.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – May 2010

The creative down side to all this, is how much time, energy and resources were needed in order to deal with this idiot. Unfortunately, the ongoing drama took me away from editing and uploading material to the blog and left me feeling quite bitter about the whole situation. On the up side however, we now have a secure boundary to our property and the level of safety is substantially better. We also seem to be moving forward again and “baring any unforeseen circumstances” I should be returning to a weekly upload.

Before I forget though, I’d like to thank the people who have continued to read the back catalog of postings and poetry on this site. Without your support (and traffic), the site would not have maintained its search engine ranking over that amount of time, and ranking (for better or worse) is everything in regards to readership on the web.

I’d especially like to thank my readers in the great city of Moscow. My server logs show that the Moscow readership maintained a great interest in the audio versions of the early poetry I uploaded to the site. Please rest assured that I will be uploading additional audio material as soon as I can – thus increasing the repertoire of what you can listen to over time. Your patronage (and bandwidth usage) also allowed the blog to briefly take the top “Theodorakis” ranking with Google (for one week at least), bumping “Mikis Theodorakis” from his number one spot. Mikis’ wikipeadia entry has since regained the top spot, as it well should, considering his artistic legacy. ;)

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – May 2010

For example, after thirty years of intensive research (carried out by agricultural departments in universities across the globe) there are now commonly available facts regarding meat and dairy production and the consumption of natural resources during meat and dairy production. It takes approximately 100000 litres of water to produce 1 kg of beef while it only takes 4000 litres of water to produce 1 kg of lentils – i.e. a saving of 96% of the earth’s resources. Despite the negligible differences in nutrition between beef and lentils, you wouldn’t know there was such an alternative and such a saving gained by simply switching to legumes. And why? Because people don’t want to know – it makes them uncomfortable to think where their food comes from and what impact it has on the planet. Most of us are just too lazy to make a change to our lifestyles. The fact that the meat industry is such a powerful lobby group and promotes its product so well, doesn’t help matters either.

So if you really want to make a change on your environmental impact, switching off your lights for one hour per year,  just isn’t going to cut it! To quote what we’ve printed on our VVOC T-Shirts  – “Want To Save The Planet?” – “Stop Eating Meat!” A simple mantra, that would have a dramatic impact on the environment if all humanity followed it!

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

What I do know is that he had a gentle and jolly soul – he never hurt or caused anyone trouble. Such a good person did not deserve to die so suddenly and so tragically. At the age of 41 he had a massive heart attack while at work – away from friends and family. I can only imagine his last moments must have been filled with fear and panic as to what was happening to his body. No one deserves to die so horribly scared – I just hope his suffering didn’t last long and he found peace soon after the attack.

In addition to this tragedy is the tragedy of his family. His father only died a few years ago and both brothers had been sick, experiencing medical complications most of their lives. I’ve often thought, though there is a lot of misery in the world, it is not evenly distributed. There are some who go through life almost charmed and there are others, like these boys (and their parents), who bear an uneven level of suffering compared to the rest of the population.

Emmanuel is survived by his mother and brother George, as well as numerous cousins, aunts and uncles.

“Eternal be, his memory”…
“Emmanuel was, is and will always be a brother in Christ”…

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

This might not be the case for everyone, but was certainly the case for me. 25 years have now passed since I had to walk away from the idea of training and working in physics. At the time I didn’t realise the dream was unraveling and would never be fulfilled. Then again, in 1985 I was an above average “horribly blinkered” adolescent, who couldn’t see that anything else existed in life other than my one and only goal. The notion of not reaching that goal was (for me), far more horrific than death.

To emphasise what effect this had on me – years after I pulled out of my Science degree, I still had PTSD flashbacks during stressful events in my life. These flashbacks were not related to any near death experience but instead involved reliving a Pure Mathematics exam I had failed. For me – life ending, was more about leaving behind my dreams than physically dying (and being revived in hospital).

So how did I get past this blockage in life and let go of the unfulfilled dream? It took a long time but once I was able to find a new vehicle for my scientific interests, it was no longer an issue. i.e. it and I finally found a home in my Sci-Fi writing.

Does this mean that I’ve created real closure for the pain and loss I experienced all those years ago? I can’t say for certain, but what I do know is this – I don’t have the flashbacks anymore and that’s got to be a good sign. Psychologically speaking, no one ever fully recovers from extreme loss (this is a fact) – the passage of time just ensures its less intense. For example, today I have written and uploaded this posting from my old campus while working on my Sci-Fi manuscript at the university’s main library. This should have acted as a trigger factor and produced negative feelings (as occured in the past) but the experience has been nothing but positive. ;)

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

Years ago I had the opportunity to become a priest – it’s a long story, but lets just say I knew people who were prepared to make it happen, as long as I was prepared to turn a blind eye to the nationalistic heresy (phyletism) that’s rife in the Orthodox Church. Going down that path might have guaranteed me a life of security, credibility and a warm fuzzy feeling that I was helping the Faith. At the time though, I had lived by my wits and by the grace of God for so long that I could not discern whether I’d be taking on the role because of the benefits or because of a genuine desire for spiritual service. The benefits on offer, for someone who had been as deprived as I had been, were just a little too tempting and I could not risk following through on such a decision. If I did, there would always be some doubt (in my mind) as to my motivations. And so, my work for “The Big Guy” continued to occur on the fringe, with no financial gain or personal benefit.

Even though passing up the offer was extremely difficult on me and a slap in the face for those who were supporting me, I felt it was the right decision. In making it, I had (as a minimum) not compromised a promise I made to myself, which was, to lay down one’s life in service to Christ – not language, not culture and definitely not country. With this as my bottom line, I’ve subsequently inched forward and worked towards teaching others as much as I can about the Faith. As happens on a regular basis however, my local church yet again made a mockery of everything I’ve fought for since 1983.

This evening, my wife and I tried to attend the Orthodox Christian service of “Matins of the Lamentations” which is about paying one’s respect to Christ in the tomb. This happens before the resurrection service tomorrow night. Instead of Roman soldiers guarding the tomb however, we were presented with children dressed in their great grandparent’s national dress. In addition to this, not a word of English was spoken or chanted during the service – English, by the way, is the only language these children understand. I’m sure I wouldn’t have reacted so badly, if the language being spoken was still understood by more than a handful of the congregation, but the language (in use) is as foreign to these people, as Latin was to the Roman Catholics in the 20th century.

Before going on, I should also point out that one of my own failings is that I haven’t learnt how to stomach the ignorance these people display for the Faith or the way they discriminate against outsiders. Let’s put aside for a moment, that every time someone like me walks into a church we get looked up and down for not dressing in the “right” clothes, or for having long hair and a pony tail – this pretentiousness and discrimination is far too entrenched to change in a hurry. What I can’t put aside however, is that in 2010, they’re still unable to differentiate between their own religion and their ancestors’ nationalism! As far as they are concerned the Faith is just another ritualistic part of their 1950s time-capsuled culture (which was perpetuated in the suburbs of Australia). I wonder what the Fathers and Mothers of the Church would have thought of this situation – Orthodoxy that doesn’t include a relationship with God!

These children, who were dressed up in someone else’s national costume were easily 4th or 5th generation Australians. One has to wonder whether their parents will ever realise that establishing a sense of identity is difficult enough for a child, let alone when it’s not allowed to plant both feet firmly in one country. Rolling nationalism into religion is a particularly desperate attempt to keep alive an ethnicity (across generations), and unfortunately is being done at the expense of the Faith. Orthodox Christianity was never about Hellenistic culture and country it was about the universal worship of God! Anything that got in the way of that worship (being universal) was always modified, especially language that became incomprehensible and foreign nationalism that overruled theology! The Faith is also about accurate history, if you want to depict the soldiers at the tomb, they were Roman, not 19th century Evzones. And if you want to depict Christ – Christ was a Jew not some Hellenistic national! What “line” are we running here – that “God was, is and always will be Hellenic”!

I honestly fear for the future of my Church in this country, and I’m gravely concerned as to why the clergy continue to allow people to convert to this Faith when converts are not welcomed and do not have a place to call home for themselves.

My message to both the Orthodox Church in Australia and its priests is make up your minds – decide whether you want the Faith to be part of this country and if so, make appropriate changes that allow it to be accessible to all Australians (like separate missionary churches) – or – take these congregations, aka the glorious diaspora which seems to pine/long for the homeland, encourage them to sell off all their Australian assets and move to where there is no conflict of interest between nationalism and religion. After more than 60 years of this nonsense, it’s time to make a choice and either put down roots for both the descendants and converts of the Faith or pack it up and leave!

I, on the other hand will continue to live in Australia and continue to operate as an Orthodox Christian, even if I have nowhere to practice my Faith. To this day I do not have a single local church where I can attend all services in the language in which I think and write – and that language is and will always be English. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against running services in multiple languages – but please – start offering appropriate liturgies in the language of the land – after all, what country do we think this is!

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

There, on the far side of the blue, we fall on our knees – dumb founded.
The trees of Gethsemane had sustained
Our blood for 100′s of years,
But like in Palestine, we were betrayed by a kiss
Whose guilt was washed away
As easily as the sandy silt, at the base of those ancient trees.
And so, we are cut free at last.
Our link to Western Crete finally broken,
As even the land now belongs to another.

But the earth does not understand these human transactions,
And awaits the return of our feet.
Longing, for the trampling of soil;
Puzzled, by where the offspring have gone;
And hoping,
For a reunion that will never come!

So how do you tell the dust of your DNA,
That the 1000 year marriage
Of rascals to rocks, chaos to creativity, mania to morals
Is finally over?
I do not know.
I only sense, that like the mythical dragon
Whose once believing children have left to become adults,
The grove is forced to wander for eternity,
As her sadness can never be eased.

Dedication (For my grandmother Maria.)
Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

Instead, I was brought up to believe that the only important thing in life was getting a degree – everything else would take care of itself. Ironically, the parent who forced this philosophy on me ended up being so threatened that I might become “a better person” than them, that they sabotaged my ability to complete that degree. In the end, not only did I not have the basic skills and resources for living, the one thing that I had been told was the panacea for all life’s needs never came to pass – i.e. I never did get that degree (at least not in the field that I loved – science).

As I had no guidance in what was important in life, I experienced real difficulties in making decisions that helped those things happen. Anything that I did manage to get in place was nothing short of miraculous. Combine this foundation-less start with some serious medical conditions and I entered a state of limbo from age 18 to 33. Its only been through the help of strangers (not family) that I’ve been able to put in place, during the last ten years, what most people (in Western counties) have in place by the time they’re 25.

So today, as I turn 43 and the important things in life are finally part of my day to day experience, I find that I have a vision of a future and enough ability and resources to hopefully make things happen. I also have the love and support of good people and hopefully the ability to still have a family.

Time as always is the great leveler, and I have no idea if I’ll be delegated enough of it to turn thoughts into realities before I suffer a systemic shutdown of my body. I live in hope however, that the metronome forgets about me just long enough, that I might carry out some fancy footwork and leave behind completed legacies not partialities.

More than most however, I know that time doesn’t choose favourites and I don’t expect it to do me any favours. In the end it boils down to just one thing – continuing to express oneself in the world for as long as one can. Everything else is just human philosophy and rhetoric – nothing more.

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

Blessed with the genetics of Cretan pirates and dollops of PTSD drawn from far too many near death experiences, I find my attempts to reach for sainthood hobbled by thoughts of pummeling the evil I encounter in humanity. Sure, one might argue, doing away with evil can’t be such a bad thing, but these thoughts often involve the “ripping apart” limb by limb of individuals who carry out these evil acts. Somehow I don’t think this approach follows the ways of a loving God – at least not the examples that Christ left us.

As I struggle with these things on a daily basis, finding some days worse than others, the passions created by both my genetics and my experiences taunt me to hit out at those without a conscience (even though I have never physically hit anyone in my life). Fortunately, these thoughts are countered by one’s training in the Faith which teaches us to turn the other cheek (in a literal sense), and that it is God’s domain to address the wrongs that others have done unto us. Religious morality is also supported psychologically by social inhibitions that hold unsavoury thoughts in check as well as one’s possession of an ethical “free will” that continues in its determination to do no harm to others. As always it’s about one’s checks and balances – things that have allowed us to develop into functional societies, at least up until now.

The only comfort I draw from this personal struggle is that humanity as a whole suffers from this dichotomy of thought and inner conflict as well. The best example of this is how most civilised society’s espouse peace yet almost always maintain well armed defence forces.

I suppose it is part of our religious/spiritual nature to try and follow in the footsteps of our peacemakers – hoping that our enemies will leave us alone. As a biological species however, we continue to reserve the right to use big sticks to hit the bad guys over the head, especially when we fear losing ground to them while adhering to a philosophical pacifist approach.

Unfortunately, there’s an ongoing ethical dilemma to this situation and that is, if we choose to pick up the retribution stick we in turn become the bad guys. So much for sainthood – I therefore continue to be the unworthy and pitifully hopeless servant of God, even as I turn 43!

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

“Paying Our Respects – 26th January 2010″

Today we remember our Indigenous brothers and sisters who have been murdered, beaten, raped, diseased, displaced, ignored and forgotten for 222 years.

We remember that they met here peacefully on this midden mound whose name we no longer know.

We remember that here they rested, discussed and resolved problems that the different clans of Quandamooka (Moreton Bay) encountered for thousands of years.

We remember that we are standing on land which they believed could not be owned by any one person but only looked after by the clan / their people – i.e. entrusted in guardianship for all time.

We remember that people belonged to the land but that the land did not belong to all people.

We remember that as a many Nationed peoples, they were invaded and that the land was never lawfully settled by the non-Indigenous peoples, as no treaties were ever signed with the original inhabitants, as no attempts were made to protect the original languages and culture, and that the original people’s presence was never acknowledged in any meaningful way.

Today we remember that choosing this day as the national day of the country is an insult to the surviving Indigenous Australians and disrespects the Indigenous people who died and suffered over the last 222 years. We look forward to a time when this county’s national day is inclusive of all Australians, when its flag represents all Australians and its Head Of State is answerable only to Australians.

Yet again we had the whole park to ourselves as we read this out loud and reflected on the day. None of the locals care to remember that the park is the burial ground of the indigenous people’s shell middens.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – January 2010

Being drawn into the battle on yet another front, the year has not ended quite as I had hoped. My first anthology, “Growing Up” (1983 – 1990) is still not all online, and energy is temporarily having to be redirected to protect my family and myself.

This physical and metaphysical war is far from over, and I am obligated to continue in my endeavours until the job is done.

So I thank you, the reader for your patience with, and patronage of my material – in spite of the delays. My hope is that 2010 is a more successful year in terms of uploads.

Until then, you have all our best wishes (both my wife’s and mine) for a healthy new decade.

Take care and stay safe,

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – January 2010

The exact date of writing in January 1990 is unknown.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – December 2009

The exact date of writing in January 1990 is unknown.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – December 2009

The overall poem is called Three Parts, even though each section has its own title. In order to highlight each piece, I’m releasing the components as separate posts. The poem includes Three Parts – Responsibilities, Three Parts – House, and Three Parts – Daisy.

This week’s component is therefore: Three Parts – Responsibilities. Its exact date of writing in January of 1990 is unknown. I’ve therefore estimated it as 06 January in order to accurately display its chronological order in relation to the other poems. The poem talks about how a dreamer was forced to “grow up” !

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – November 2009

Dedication (For my feathered friend Bert who continues to mourn Molly, his head preener and companion.)
Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2009

When I start up again, I’ll be resuming and completing the upload of my first anthology i.e. – “Growing Up”, which was written between 1983 and 1990.

My next scheduled posting should be a poem that appears here on Friday 27th November 2009 – if not beforehand.

Till then…

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – November 2009

For example, you see it in the woman who stops to help a young girl who’s dog has been run over on a major road. The woman makes a conscious choice to pull over when all other drivers pretend they don’t see anything going on and drive past the youngster’s tragedy.

You see it in the teacher who puts her pupils first, in spite of her back stabbing discriminatory colleagues who stop at nothing to get the cushy teaching jobs – year in, year out. The teacher has a habit of biting her tongue and getting on with the actual teaching, even though her own life has been made miserable by her co-workers.

You see it in the guy who continues to get up every morning even though all his hopes and dreams have been dashed by life’s unpredictability. In spite of his accumulated hardships, he continues to embark on new endeavors each and everyday – hoping that just one of them will bring some purpose to his life. He is the archetypal figure of stubbornness who refuses to give up on life, even though everyone else thinks life has given up on him.

Courage is a precious thing and cannot exist without decency. I have witnessed it first hand through these people and its rare occurrence continues to keep me going when the cowardice of the majority crashes over me like an insurmountable wave.

What people often miss, is that the courageous aren’t rich and have few resources to spare. They tend to become possessed (or is that obsessed) by the urge to manifest decency in the visible world and find it hard not to follow through on that urge. When they do achieve a win for their efforts, something or someone is often saved but the courageous rarely receive any personal gain. Alternately when they lose, the loss is always personal and sometimes substantial. The price the courageous pay can be financial, interpersonal, health based, or a loss of safety and security.

Years ago, I had the misfortune of listening in on a conversation led by an individual who had never lifted a finger in his life to help another human being. He was “slagging off” about a true hero, someone who had tried to save a drowning homeless person but instead drowned himself. The coward’s argument was that the dead hero should never have tried to save the homeless person, for the hero’s life was far more important than the homeless man’s life. If the hero had just minded his own business he would still be alive, and that’s all that mattered!

Such heartless attitudes, highlight how people’s social responses continue to be good or bad – right or wrong. Irrespective of whether you believe people’s responses can be categorized in this way or whether a God oversees such categories, a person can’t escape the repercussions of indifference as it has an uncanny ability to haunt one in the wee hours of the morn. For better or worse our human psyche is founded on such values and even the coward’s conscience will cause them distress until they either seek absolution for their lack of decency and/or die. Either way, a life that lacks decency eventually becomes meaningless.

I for one hope that I continue to grow in regards to decency, and believe that I’ll know when this occurs as my actions will become bolder and more courageous. My wife on the other hand, has nothing more to prove. She is already the most courageous person I know and everyone who encounters her always benefits from her decency – especially the children she teaches. ;)

Dedication (For my wife Helen and her friend Belinda Adams)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2009

Social behaviour is getting more extreme and concern for one’s fellow human being is reaching an all time low – especially in our locality. In the past, I encountered malicious intent in only a few people around us. Now I find a large number of individuals are using it as an acceptable form of human interaction.

This really upsets me and I’ve often thought that our species doesn’t deserve its place in the biosphere. Even so, I doubt that our presence will be eradicated anytime soon. Its going to take some time for the planet to wipe us out and correct the mess we have made.

That being the case, and because I no longer trust our neighbourhood, we have decided to put up the strongest, highest fence we can afford. Our aim is to create an island sanctuary amongst this suburban insanity. Whether this action is enough to hold back the barbarian assault is anyone’s guess.

Moving elsewhere is unfortunately not an option.

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2009

Often – it takes a while
For us to realise,
That our bodies
Are the carriages,
Of nature’s own time machine.

Witnessing change first hand,
And reliving the past in our minds,
We are all experts
By the time we step off,
And hand over our ticket stubs – though reticent,

To the grinning skull,
Of the sickle bearing station master!

Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2009

Being uneducated and unfamiliar with the old adage (euphemism) that “God helps those who help themselves”, she had a tendency to cross her fingers and hope that God would provide her with everything she needed – not a very smart strategy under any circumstance.

Needless to say, the lady’s life went from bad to worse and her inactivity eventually caused her to lose her house.

The author for the week is the renaissance writer known as: Voltaire

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – October 2009

Called – Insight And Wisdom From Parents? - it was written in June 1989.

The author for the week is the poet: William Wordsworth.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – October 2009

If this doesn’t define us,
I don’t know what does!

Dedication (In response to my wife yelling out… “Look at the dandy lions!”)
Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2009

The author for the week is the Canadian poet and musician: Leonard Cohen.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – September 2009

The author for the week is the Roman poet and vegetarian: Ovid.
Some of his poems can be read at: http://www.poemhunter.com/ovid/

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – September 2009

As of next week however, I should be back to editing and uploading the “Growing Up” anthology. My ongoing aim is to publicly release all poems in this anthology by the end of the year.

In the mean time, the pieces uploaded in the last month include:
Formal Worship And Nature – a ‘religion and theology’ commentary.
The Havoc They Reeked! – a new poem written in August.
The Apple Multi-Touch Tablet – A Mouse Replacement? – a ‘tech prediction’ about the yet to be released Apple Tablet.
The Exam Syndrome – a ‘general’ commentary on competition.
This Is What We Are! – a ‘religion and theology’ commentary on the state of Orthodox Christianity in Australia (still being worked on).

The author for the week is the great pacifist and vegetarian: Albert Einstein.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – September 2009

What I find interesting, is that I’ve seen other children raised in families with no formal ritual or religion, do a very similar thing. In all instances they try to re-enact stories associated with local beliefs, which they’ve heard about through members of their community. For example, a friend of mine whose people were traditionally Buddhist has raised his kids without any reference to religion; yet, these kids know of the Budda story (through other friends) and try to make up plays about him.

This may of course be about child conformity, but I believe the innate tendency of children to gravitate towards religion is about humanity having a built in need for ritual and spirituality. In its absence, we will always substitute something in its place – just look at how sport is followed and worshiped in secular countries like Australia. The bottom line is we are animals, born on a planet with physical cycles and we have always been tied into these cycles – its hardwired into our genetic make-up. When we progressively removed ourselves from those cycles, that is, by developing sedentary lifestyles, our internal clocks did not suddenly abandon our need for routine or ritual even though we had cut close ties with the environment. In fact, the further we removed ourselves from the cycles of the earth the more dependent we became on ritual in order to “feel ok and normal”. Millions of years of evolution couldn’t be left behind by our genome, just because culturally/socially we had stopped paying attention to the seasons and acknowledging the sun’s rising and the moon’s setting, etc. The simple answer to the good atheist’s question of “Why do we need religion?” is that we need routine and ritual to feel complete and religion is still the best fulfiller of this need.

Built on top of this psychosocial fact is the metaphysics of the situation. Anyone who has ever gone camping and watched the planet come to life in the mornings, or watched pets in captivity when the sun reappears, knows that all sentient creatures turn to the sun and welcome another day of existence with gratitude. So much so, that I swear you can almost hear them thanking existence/their Maker/their Source for their lives. I’ve often thought that the places of worship we build can never match the living cathedral of the planet, where all creatures are allowed to witness the sun breaking over the horizon, are allowed to stand side by side (both friend and foe) and offer up their gratitude in their own way – even if that “survival of the fittest ceasefire” only lasts for a moment of each morning. In this cathedral, this daily event (which inadvertently sanctifies everything that participates) is the right of all life, not just Homo sapiens. The associated tragedy of our settled lifestyles is that many creatures in captivity often can’t see the sun to fulfil our most prehistoric of all biological rituals.

We may therefore have created formal worship (for ourselves) because it completes us in the absence of standing alongside our planet’s brethren as the sun re-appears each morning. In addition to this explanation of formal religion, many religious texts (written by people of insight) have described how non-corporeal beings in the invisible world also hold elaborate liturgies in praise of their Source. e.g. With Christianity, there are many instances in the Bible that describe how the Seraphim and Cherubim have always held formal worship before God. Combine all these physical and metaphysical theories together and it’s not hard to see why we feel most at home when we have something to look up to and thank – whether it be the sun, God or a sporting team.

A thousand years from now, I have no doubt that my nieces’ contemporaries will construct other religious plays that pay homage to existence, God and the meaning of life. Even if no adults are left who believe in anything other than themselves, children will know what to do. I believe our young will continue to hear the call of the sun (or is that the Son?), which is hardwired into our genome, until it is beaten out of them by non-believing adults. It is only the adults who have forgotten to stand beside the Pelicans and be grateful for the fresh air that fills their lungs, the sun that warms their skin and the light that illuminates their eyes. In every era, a few of our children take this instinctive insight into adulthood. Those who do will always be our seers and guides in life.

Addendum For Orthodox Christians: Nature And Christ?

As a species, the more we moved away from the natural world and into the artificial world of societies and cities, the more important formal ritual became. Our internal body clocks which had built in memories for cycles, seem to have happily accepted the replacement of routine (like work) and ritual (like religion) to make up for being taken out of the planet’s normal patterns.

For good Christians, Christ inadvertently had to show up in order to remind us of what we had once known instinctively but had forgotten. Knowing us better than we knew ourselves, he had to re-educate us in regards to His presence, which had existed prior to the creation of the universe, and continued to exist as a conduit to God even though we had forgotten about the conduit and had forgotten about Him. He even had to become one of us and walk among us, for we had become so fixated on our own species, that we were incapable of understanding a connection with the Source other than through our own constructs and through one of our own kind. Living away from nature for so long, we couldn’t see what all the other creatures could still see naturally. Christ’s visit was to primarily restore us to our natural state.

Ironically, some groups of people – especially the nomads, still had a sense of the Source and the connections to the Source through the planet’s natural cycles. Colonial Christian missionaries however, spent hundreds of years prying nomadic peoples away from their lifestyles and unbroken connections with the earth, only to settle them in towns and offer them religion to replace the ritual they lost through settlement. This type of social engineering was not only discriminatory and stupid but also spiritually wasteful! It was analogous to having access to a meal but then throwing the meal into the bin and giving the restaurant’s patrons exactly the same meal (only this time arranged differently on the plate). In addition to this, the restaurateurs (i.e. missionaries) went on to claim that the patrons (i.e. nomadic peoples) never had any food in the first place. Their final strategy was of course to indoctrinate all survivors that this was always the case.

If these people had been left alone, their separation from the Source would never have occurred. Our history is unfortunately riddled with examples of how colonialists “had” to save those that did not need saving, “had” to offer them a connection/communion with God when it was already there and “had” to force them out of Eden as the colonialist’s ancestors had been forced out of Eden thousands of years earlier. How dare someone continue to exist within Eden, when everyone else had inadvertently thrown themselves out in search of bigger and better things than the earth could provide naturally! Ah… the notion of greed – civilisation’s finest friend and first ever catalyst is unfortunately still with us.

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2009

Never again,
Will it be as the ancestors knew.
For it was taken;
And in the shortest amount of time,
Crushed by the other.
Annihilating the balance
That once ruled these waters.

Everything is right;
As far as the mainstreamers
Are concerned.
But all that remains
Is the blue,
Filling up my mind,
And drowning out my heart;
Stretching ahead,
For as far as I can see.

Dedication (For Minjerribah)
Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2009

Contrary to what she has come to believe, there is nothing psychic about my predictions of new gadgets. It’s all about reading widely in the tech industry (which I have to do for my web work), and extrapolating product lines. Most companies develop their products on the basis of what they want the customer to “believe” they need. Their PR gurus then go to work on convincing the customer that they “have to have” the item. There are lots of strategies for doing this, especially with today’s hi-tech marketing and advanced industrial design. In this way, tech companies often groom their customers for a new product through incremental technological changes. It’s very rare for businesses to randomly dump a new type of device on the market without preparing the commercial environment for the introduction of the product. In instances where they do dump a new category of device on an unsuspecting public, it almost always fails. Just look at the Apple Newton – a great device, but no one knew what to do with it on a day to day basis. In addition to this, companies inadvertently leave behind a trail of clues that outline the new product’s purpose, especially when they begin modifying related technology to work with the new product.

So far, I’ve successfully predicted that if Steve Jobs ever returned to Apple, Inc. he would simplify it’s product line and reintroduce an all in one Mac. Everyone made fun of me at the time, but this of course did occur when the iMac was introduced in 1998. I also predicted that Apple would create a commercial and legal ecosystem for music downloads and come up with a “useful” MP3 player when I realised they had converted the SoundJam MP program into iTunes 1 (in early 2001). The only thing I didn’t get right was just how intuitive and user friendly the iPod’s interface was going to be.

So what’s my latest prediction? The Apple Multi-touch Tablet of course, but not in the way that all the tech sites are describing. I predict that Apple will attempt a paradigm shift in the way we interact with our personal computers and access data wirelessly. The interesting thing about the shift is that all the components for it are already in place – touch screens, small footprint operating systems, cutback keyboards, wireless networks in homes and offices. So many of the components are in place, that the device should fit into most people’s lives without its introduction being a surprise at all. Even so, it will be a paradigm shift away from what we’ve grown accustomed to i.e. using a mouse as a pointing device.

So this is my prediction, as we move towards our computer desktops actually becoming our physical table’s desktop, we’ll need medium sized multi-touch surfaces to get used to the idea of the computer disappearing all together. I believe that Apple and other computer companies are slowly moving in this direction, but the hardware change they’re pursuing won’t happen overnight. In the meantime, people need to get used to touch screens and what better way to do this than by replacing the mouse (and mouse-pad) with a touch screen device. Let’s call the device an “iPad” in recognition of track-pads already on notebooks. After all, laptop owners have been using track-pads instead of mice for years now. What Apple probably wants us to do, is start using desktop PCs that are made up of a small keyboard, screen and small multi-touch device – no mouse. If this wasn’t the case, why did Steve Jobs finally allow the mouse to become multi-button based? Anyone who’s followed how obsessed he was with single button devices, knows he wouldn’t have let go of the single button mouse, unless he was absolutely sure the mouse was already on its way out! Initially when purchasing such computers online, I expect that you’ll be able to choose between a mouse and a multi-touch tablet (iPad?). Because the tablet will be so expensive on release, only the die-hard Mac-Heads will choose this sort of computer bundle.

I’m guessing that while such a device is connected to a desktop machine, its touch pad app, numeric keyboard app or desktop screen duplication app would link its iPhone OS to the main machine’s Mac or Windows OS. While working as a touch pad, the screen would probably go blank in order to conserve battery power and not distract the user from using it as a touch pad.

In addition to the tablet doubling up as a mouse (numeric keypad, mirror or extended screen, etc.), the consumer would be able to disconnect the tablet from the desktop machine and move around a house outfitted with a wi-fi network for general emailing, web browsing, tv streaming etc, just like other iPhone OS devices. They’d only reconnect the device to the desktop machine in order to carry out computing tasks that are too cumbersome to do on a tablet.

The beauty of this paradigm shift is that Apple gets rid of the mouse, annihilates the netbook market and monopolises the touch screen industry in one go. It also gets people ready for the day when the computer is the desktop and the desktop is the computer – no keyboard, no mouse, no screen – just the flat surface of the desk. (The flat surface preparation has already began with Apple’s introduction of low profile keyboards.) When looking at the current iMacs and their keyboards, its not hard to image how these machines could first evolve into drafting board devices and then finally into completely flat digital desktop surfaces that cover a normal table.

How did I come up with this prediction? “Elementary my dear Watson!” I collated the following tech facts and made a deduction. The facts include:

1. Reports of Chinese manufactures dropping the use of mice and adding track pads to standard keyboards i.e. one device instead of two. Some Chinese tech companies are notorious for stealing concepts before they get released. i.e. In this case the idea of getting rid of the mouse.
2. Common knowledge that Apple has been working on a tablet for a long time.
3. Apple already has an optimised OS i.e. iPhone OS for multitouch screens. It doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel, and this OS finally does everything a micro OS needs to do, like cut, copy and paste.
4. Apple is now bundling keyboards without numeric keypads so a different device can finally slot in next to the keyboard. This also means that if the device was touch screen based, it could have customised programs that simulate a numeric keypad as well as do the job of the mouse.
5. The Mac OS Finder now uses “Cover Flow”. i.e. one wouldn’t start building this into their OS unless one intended all their computers to use some form of touch screen to scroll from side to side.
6. Making upright touch screens, as Acer and HP have done are impractical and non ergonomic – they need to lie flat. Anyone who has used these screens for more than a few minutes ends up with instant RSI.
7. Apple likes to shake up markets – as it did with personal computers, MP3 players and smart phones. It’s been tracking the netbook market for sometime and is really the only company currently able to reinvent these devices as something that “everyone” will need.
8. Apple has tried the idea of a portable device docking into a desktop workstation a number of times. For example the Powerbook Duo and Duo Dock. Unfortunately, the concept never caught on even though the equipment was very robust. In addition to the dock’s commercial failure, a multi-touch tablet would effectively waste or under utilise its touch screen, especially if a docking mechanism swallowed it up. To highlight this point please see macbooktouch.com’s suggested picture of an Apple Tablet Dock.

I therefore believe Apple’s Multi-touch Tablet will be a stand alone device which doubles as a peripheral device. It will probably continue as such, until it becomes as ubiquitous as the mouse and is bundled with every computer. This prediction could be completely wrong, but I’d be very surprised if Apple didn’t do something along these lines. Too many things in the tech industry are currently pointing towards just such a development.

Post Update: 29/08/2009
There are now numerous rumors circulating that support my theory that the Apple Tablet will be a replacement for the mouse. Both are currently on the macrumors.com site i.e.
A – http://www.macrumors.com/2009/08/28/apple-working-on-10-13-and-15-inch-tablets/
which talks about the tablet being made of aluminium just like the keyboard and thus complimenting the keyboard’s design.
B – http://www.macrumors.com/2009/08/15/questionable-tablet-images-from-unreliable-source/
which shows a picture of a tablet made out of aluminium just like the keyboard, and again complimenting the keyboard’s design when positioned alongside the keyboard.

An additional point I’d like to make is that the tablet will be able to go both ways, act as a mouse and have a keyboard plugged in to it in order to do more serious typing.

Post Update: 08/09/2009
I’ve just discovered further circumstantial evidence to support my theory.
Please read: http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-653679.html

I didn’t realise that Apple had purchased FingerWorks in 2005. I believe almost all of the functionality that existed in FingerWorks products is about to appear in the yet to be released Apple Multi-touch Tablet. Its interesting to note, that I came up with my prediction independent of any knowledge of FingerWorks existence, its products and its purchase by Apple, Inc.

Post Update: 18/09/2009
An additional thought – now that Mac OS X has Grand Central Dispatch, a desktop setup which included a desktop machine and a tablet could make use of the tablet’s chip-set to increase the processing power of the desktop machine. This would occur when the tablet was being used as a multi-touch interface for the desktop machine and the chips were able to share the workload wirelessly etc. If Apple implemented this, they would be a whole generation ahead of the competition as all Apple’s machines would be made up of multiple computers that could combine their processing power.

Post Update: 20/01/2010
Since I first wrote this piece and posted the updates, a series of things has happened which I still think point towards the Apple Tablet being a paradigm shift away from using the mouse.

Firstly, Apple brought out the magic mouse which has a touch sensitive surface and is acting as an excellent bridge between the era of the mouse and the era of the tablet.

Secondly, Apple began buying up all sorts of trademarks like magic slate and ipad. To me, this points towards the idea that they want the product identified as a stand alone touch pad – as opposed to the built in touch pads on laptops.

Thirdly, after leaving fingerworks.com running since Apple bought the company, the fingerworks.com site was finally pulled on the 11/01/2010. Reason for this – they obviously don’t want the FingerWorks multitouch peripheral interfaces being compared with the multitouch tablet as a peripheral interface.

So am I right or am I wrong? According to almost everyone the Tablet and its launch is scheduled for the 27th January – just over a week away. If I am right that will give me a “hat trick” in terms of Apple predictions and force all the rumors sites to eat humble pie – I should point out, that not one of them has linked to this article. Alternatively, if I’m wrong then my track record will be ruined and I of course will be the one eating humble pie!

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2009, 2010

For me though, existence is more about survival and quality of life. I’m often told, “one approach, is no better or worse than the other – they’re just different.” Needless to say, this affirmation is that of liberalist fanatics.

For better or worse, people (like me) have trouble maintaining the frivolity and excitement of achievement, especially after staring death in the face as often as we have. Most recently, I’ve decided to put the last vestiges of my own need for success and competition to rest. Its time to get on with what I have to do and not obsess over what I’d like to do.

Ironically, this doesn’t translate into not doing well at what I have to do; it’s more about, not being concerned as to what others think and not needing to compete within our social system. Still, taking this path has relegated me to the leper’s corner in more ways than one. It’s also very dubious as to whether this approach is a good long term choice for my wife and I, in regards to our financial well being. :)

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2009

If not for the crumbling paper
Now held in my own aging hand,
Our young would see you as vectors
Drawn from silicone etching.

Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

Contrary to popular opinion (i.e. that of my wife and another close friend) the frog was not me, but an amalgam of male friends who went after girls who treated them badly. In addition to this, each and everyone of these friends had other female friends who were romantically interested them and who would have made wonderful partners/companions. As often happens though, my friends ignored these girls and to this day are still seeking out wives!

I’m glad to say that unlike reality, “The Facades Of Life” does have a happy ending, for the frog and his folklore rose.

The author for the week is the essayist: George Bernard Shaw

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – July 2009

Unfortunately, I never wrote down her name, can’t remember where she’s buried and can barely recall her face. What’s impossible to forget however is how she treated people. The poem is called – Her Sadness And Her Strength and was written in 1988.

The author for the week is the great Russian Orthodox fictional writer: Leo Tolstoy

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – July 2009

While working through this first anthology, I’ve found my early obsession with love a bit laborious and ridiculously naive. I therefore offer up my apologies to any readers who are also finding the latest run of poems from the late 1980′s more than a bit tedious.

As with many things viewed from a distance, love had been blown out of all proportions – mainly because I had never experienced it outside my adolescent fantasies. A little bit of experience may have cured me of my obsession, but unfortunately that didn’t happen till much later in my 20′s.

In regards to this blog though, I have for better or worse made a commitment to document all the material I’ve penned over the years – the purpose being, to highlight how one develops their own voice over time. Fortunately we’re not too far away from the end of the first anthology. Subsequent anthologies do cover a wider range of topics and put my over bearing notion of love back in its place.

The author for the week is Mary Shelley’s husband, troublemaker and vegetarian extraordinaire: Percy Bysshe Shelley

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – July 2009

The author for the week is great novelist: Rudyard Kipling

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – July 2009

Then there’s the vintage board games, toys and manual typewriters; the music collection with a who’s who of the 60s, 70s and 80s; DVDs galore – now that all the retailers sell popular titles and TV series for under $10.

There’s 30 years of PCs, Macs and software; furniture that spans 7 decades; a stucco house that was built in the 1950s and has barely changed; the Hills Hoist cloths line; a mixture of native trees, veggies and lawn; the second love of my life – my kayak – the first of course being my wife, Helen.

Finally, we both have long hair, wear daggy cloths, love architecture and good design but have never felt the need to possess flashy things ourselves – or maybe that’s because we’ve never had a lot of money!

We critique all things political within the Australian and Pacific context; love cartoons, sitcoms from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s as well as British comedy; refuse to support the use, abuse and slaughter of other sentient beings and only consume nutritional food that has a minimal impact on the planet.

All in all, our culture is that of popular culture, yet there are those who look at my name and still presume my culture to be something altogether different. My identity is based on a mainstream (politically green) Australian footing and my moral/ethical boundaries defined by my Orthodox Christian religion.

At the age of 42, I am very comfortable with this combination. The amalgam of influences that has gone in to make the “me” is rich – a complex weave with many happy memories – especially from the 1980s and the last ten years of my marriage. I am under no illusions however that my culture is anything but popular culture, especially popular English speaking culture. I was born in Australia and bar three months of my life, have lived that entire time upon her shores. For better or worse I live the English language, think in it and revel in playing with its vocabulary and structure.

There is only one thing that is missing – my religion refuses to put down roots in this country and refuses to recognise the legitimacy of people like me. The Orthodox Christian Church treats us as though we are invisible.

All my life I have fought this attitude – it is dysfunctional and has a destructive effect on any well balanced human being. It asks one to denounce one’s actual experience and culture and adopt a culture that has no relevance to one’s everyday life. Needless to say, this has resulted in the bulk of my family and peers walking away from Orthodox Christianity all together.

Lets put aside the obvious hinderence for a moment, i.e. that its current liturgies are not accessible to English speaking mainstream Australians. The other major obstacle to participation is its ethnic based Churches and the bulk of it’s ethnic based people who are down right unwelcoming. The Church in Australia has become a closed club rather than the universal Church that Christ established – what an institutional mess!

(There are many reasons as to why this happened but the biggest contributor is that the Orthodox Faith did not establish itself in this country the way it traditionally established itself in other countries – i.e. through missionary churches.)

Unlike Bishop Kallistos Ware, who as an Anglican (in the UK) walked into an Orthodox Church and felt at home, if the average spiritually interested Australian walks into any of these ethnic based churches, at best they’ll get dirty looks, at worst they’ll be confronted and ushered out. So much for following Christ’s example of welcoming all! What is even more perplexing, is that this structure continues to baptise mainstream Australians into itself, even though there are very few places across the continent where English speakers can worship and even fewer places where they can experience a sense of belonging!

The only thing I take comfort from is that the current situation is a heresy according to Orthodoxy’s own dictum – Phyletism – which says that any church established in a new land should be operated in the language of that land – this principal has always been in our canons. The hope therefore continues to be, that in addition to these ethnic based parishes, missionary (English speaking) parishes will one day be built in this country. In a nation based on democracy and choice, one should be able to worship in the language in which they think – Indigenous, Slavic, European or English.

In the meantime, I am happy with who I am, love that I’m a product of popular culture drawn from more than five decades and that my first language is English. I have no intention of changing any of this to accommodate the short sightedness of the current administration controlling my religion.

Thus, were you to walk into our humble abode – you’ll find ABC’s Radio National blaring in the background not SBS; reruns of Seinfield and The Simpsons on TV not Inspector Rex and guitar based rock (from the 80s) streaming out of our CD player not suicidal Aegean music. You’ll also find numerous icons of the great martyrs and saints of the Church, crosses from holy places like Mount Athos and a sanctuary with an oil candle and incensor.

This is how my kind live – we do not live as Europeans, Brits or Asians, we live as Australians whose religion goes back 2000 years and is known as Orthodox Christianity – so get used to it, we’re not about to disappear anytime soon!

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2010

The next scheduled posting will be a poem that should appear here on Friday 10th July 2009.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – June 2009

In July 1988 I was working with a wonderful young woman at David Jones (Queen Street Store – Brisbane) who epitomized spunk and whom everyone liked. This poem was written for her during the month of July but was meant as a 1988 Christmas present. What I can’t remember, is whether I was daft/courageous enough to give it to her, or whether I just filed it away amongst the rest of my material. The poem was called – Someone Special

My highlighted author for the week is great novelist: Earnest Hemmingway

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – June 2009

It touches on the idea that modern western women can be feminine and take advantage of all life’s options.

The highlighted author for this week is the gothic writer: Mary Shelley

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – June 2009

Staying Invisible describes a particular lifestyle and how its informed by an Orthodox Christian world view. Wisdom Gained, Wisdom Lost… is a social commentary in regards to how current Western cultures over emphasise the importance of youth at the expense of the elderly.

The author of the week is: Edgar Allen Poe whose life was unfortunately cut short by tuberculosis.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – June 2009

It discusses the procrastination experienced by a medieval knight who reaches a fork in the road and can’t decide whether to go left or right.

The highlighted author for this week is the children’s writer: Roald Dahl

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – May 2009

Great Is Truth – is another autobiographical snippet written on Tuesday about why truth and honesty have become such an important part of my life. The piece is filed under the general post category.

The highlighted author for this week is an Orthodox Christian Theologian – Alexander Schmemann whose material I greatly admire. I wish more of his work was available in print, but I am very grateful for the books that have been released.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – May 2009

I spent the best part of 8 years at this university, finally leaving with a social work degree (not science) and this quote embedded in my psyche. The idea that truth does matter and is the only thing that can traverse death became an integral part of my worldview. Being honest and encouraging others to do the same was my way of putting the principle into practice – even though it caused me and those around me, all sorts of problems.

When life went horribly wrong in 1991, at the hands of those I most trusted, the need to communicate what really occurred was the only thing that kept me alive. I figured if I died, the other’s lies would have been my epitaph and no one would ever know what really happened to me.

Needless to say I was naive and a bit of a fool. What I didn’t understand, but soon learned, was that relatives (and friends) don’t necessarily care about the truth or want to know the truth. In my case, most of them chose to believe the lies being circulated because the lies were far easier to accept than having their illusion of reality shattered. The liar, who generated the lies, understood this principle well and milked the process for all it was worth. So much so, that even today, most of my family in Melbourne continues to believe this person’s misinformation about what happened in Brisbane in the 1990s – after all, lies are much easier to stomach and much more convenient to share, especially if the truth makes you look bad.

What pains me, is that experiences were turned into a “perspective” and suffering was made “invalid”, “covered up” or “erased” by both the liar and the believers of the lies. In spite of this, I have tried to treat everyone the same (both the good and the bad) and I have no intention of changing this approach. Contrary to popular opinion, I was not “brainwashed by anyone” or convinced to adopt my perspective, but have deliberately chosen not to lie about the events and not to protect the liar’s honour or hide their shameful actions.

I believe that one has to accept that certain things are right and certain things are wrong if one is to adhere to a civilised and moral code of conduct. I also believe that one needs to take responsibility for their actions and the consequences of those actions on others. Honesty should always be part of every human being’s way of life and people need to own up to having done something wrong; otherwise, trust can never develop between individuals.

As might be expected, trust no longer exists in the context I’ve described, and even though the path ahead of me looks no easier than the path behind me, I continue to denounce the lies created by both family and society in general. Presenting the truth is what I’ve come to stand for and if this upsets people (as it has done in the past), then so be it. Were I to cease presenting what I have witnessed, then what I went through in August 1991 (and since) will have been in vain!

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2009

It investigates the idea of what might lie ahead for one self if one could start over again as an infant.

The highlighted author for this week is the Sci-Fi writer: Alan Dean Foster

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – May 2009

A society that doesn’t listen to the wisdom of age and instead looks to its youth for guidance is not sustainable. Its operational basis is that of experiential waste – just look at what happens when it’s taken to extremes like the killing fields in Cambodia. Unfortunately, we are at risk of never becoming a mature society, and if we continue to also taunt nature with our jibes that the planet is our offspring’s to do with as they please – our eradication by the Earth is all but guaranteed. The planet will eventually scratch us off its surface, like a dog scratches off fleas – indiscriminately.

It’s a shame that this is what we’ve become, because this wasn’t always the case in Western countries like Australia. There was a time when we did advance our culture, adding to our civility as gentlemen and ladies, and passing that onto our children – but that was prior to the baby boomers taking over the world, and setting up the current youth orientated standard for all subsequent generations to follow. One can only hope that we’ll eventually produce a generation that challenges the current status quo and begins respecting the insight of its elderly.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – May 2009

The tale is quite haunting and I’ve often thought about its implications in regards to how much of a public figure Christ was in his own time. The thing that’s most intriguing, is that reading between the lines of scripture and what the traditional Church teaches, one can’t help but notice that Christ himself did not seek the limelight or even like it. The best supporting evidence we have of this is how He implemented numerous techniques that emphasised his own words and works but not Himself. One of these techniques was of course never writing anything down. In spite of this, His story has been passed down from generation to generation, and it’s often retold as though His presence brought Jerusalem to a stand still – on more than one occasion. I fear this is inconsistent with the nature of the God-Man, who we are told was quietly spoken and “did not even break the bent reed” (1 Ki 14:15; Isa 42:3; Mt 12:20).

Like many of the greatest figures in history, what he said and how he lived his life was so inspirational that people couldn’t help but place him on a pedestal for others to worship – our species has done this from the very beginning – idolising those who have something new to offer. I expect that He Himself was quite invisible outside of those who knew him. The message he left behind was so amazing however, that it changed the course of human history (and spread exponentially).

At the core of the oldest forms of Christianity, this humility is still acknowledged and followed. We who fall under the Orthodox Christian umbrella are taught to live our lives well, follow His example and not make a big deal out of our way of life. In the East, this approach is understood to be the best way of encouraging others to do the same. The original Christians, the Orthodox, still don’t proselytize as many of today’s Protestants do. Sincere Orthodox Christians offer up their lives as an example of the Faith – and in so doing, hope that people who choose to join the religion, do so because they like what they see in regards to the Orthodox lifestyle and worship.

Unfortunately our media driven world has led many people, even within Orthodox Christianity, to choose the opposite road to anonymity. The need to be the centre of attention is a very seductive thing – just like the rest of our Western lifestyles.

For better or for worse, I have tried to live my life the way I believe Christ did, though not always successfully. Rather than stand at the front and postulate, demanding that people look at me, I stand at the back and hope that what I have learnt and how I have lived is a helpful guide to others. My philosophy is therefore – “stay invisible”, for in so doing, you may in fact have a personal impact on those around you and you will in fact be following in Christ’s footsteps.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – May 2009

The commentary: Hope For The Planet… is a thought I had while on the train heading into Brisbane. Pulling into Roma Street Station I noticed a slab of concrete that had grass growing through a crack in its centre. Contrary to what Queensland Rail might think, I found this very encouraging.

The autobiographical snippet: Having No Desk… is something I’ve been wanting to write and upload for some time, but I didn’t have a place on the blog for autobiographical prose. In the end I’ve decided to just list it as a general posting.

The highlighted author for this week is a Futurist and Inventor – Ray Kurzweil

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – May 2009

Most of that winter was spent in a tiny uninsulated room, trying to complete my degree’s third year social work subjects. I had to turn a drawer upside down and balance it on boxes on either side of my legs – just to get a level surface to write on. I can’t remember how much material I wrote in this setting, but it was horribly uncomfortable and incredibly demoralising. I was supposed to become a Physicist, for goodness sake, and here I was churning out Marxist dribble on the bottom of a drawer in Brisbane’s dampest suburb – Graceville.

During my darkest hours in 1989, I often thought about my grandparents and how they had migrated to Australia in order to ensure their descendants had a better standard of living. My parent’s actions inevitably put an end to that dream leaving me to fend for myself. Ill health and a lack of resources subsequently left me homeless. The fact that Graceville’s resident Casanova was kind enough to let me use his spare room, before I froze to death in my antiquated Subaru Sherpa, was my only break.

As someone who values writing above all else, it is interesting to note, that each time I found myself homeless in the late 1980s / early 1990s, the main thing that bothered me was having no desk. My lack of food and the absence of a bed seemed to come a distant second. When I finally bought a new desk, I was so used to “not having” possessions that I found it difficult to give myself permission “to have” the desk – even though it was desperately needed.

Now that its 2009, and life has greatly improved, it’s time to make way for a more functional writing environment, especially if I want to complete that piece of speculative fiction, that has clung to me like a 400 pound gorilla. :) Once the room is set up, I’ll post a few pictures of my custom built writing environment. Regarding my writing from 1989 – thank goodness for wide drawers and cardboard boxes! ;)

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – May 2009

These defiant acts of nature remind us that life is waiting in the wings for humanity to stumble. And were we to trip and fall, the Earth’s ecosystem would take over and run things the way they should have been run in the first place.

It’s heartening to discover, that life will out last our destructive presence even if we don’t.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – May 2009

This piece of verse belongs to the “Growing Up” anthology and was written in April 1988 – the exact date in April was not recorded. As with many of my pieces from that era, it too is about the emotional turmoil associated with identifying a partner or life long companion. If I had just focused on finding someone that wanted to go out on a date first instead of marriage, I may have had better success! :)

The highlighted author for this week is another children’s writer – Beatrix Potter

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – May 2009

At a head level I’ve always found that religion and theology are helpful in dealing with loss, but at an emotional level it makes no difference to the ongoing grief because I know that even if I do encounter them in an afterlife, they will not be the same being I knew on earth.

I also pointed out to my friend, that I often look for my lost friends in other humans / creatures only to discover and rediscover that nothing more than aspects and traits of my friends’ personas are ever present in others – one never, ever, sees the whole again.

Once dead, their uniqueness is always lost to the world, irrespective of what one might believe happens in an afterlife.

This week’s highlighted author is: Thomas Keneally

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – April 2009

The only way to witness a life’s uniqueness again, especially after it dies, is to step outside of time, travel along the continuum, open a portal and witness it within its living context.

Additionally, when outside time, no life is the same as it was while alive within time. This is because the time variable and the time variable’s effect on the being has been removed. One will never again see the being that’s present before them after the moment has passed. Which makes it even more important that one appreciates each encounter and each engagement.

In a very real sense then, each time you see a being, it is the first and last time you will see them in the form that they’re in, for all life invariably changes as each moment passes.

It therefore follows, that every time you look out into the world, you are in fact seeing it for the very first time, even if you think that you’ve looked at that very same scene each and everyday of your life.

Savor the moment – as the ancient’s used to say. Savor your witnessing of a life, for you will never see it in quite the same way again. Both you and it will be different beings by the time you next meet.

The living are truly fortunate as trillions of unique moments are seen and experienced before each and everyone of us dies – no matter how short our lives. What an amazing thing it is then, to exist within time, even if it is filled with flaws, loss and sadness.

Dedication – For our little girl Molly…
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2009

Some of my earliest memories include attending Orthodox Christian services on this day. My maternal grandmother – Olga, would drag me around to all the liturgies during Holy Week, and though I understood nothing, she was determined to show me everything.

Since then, most of my adult life has been spent exploring and defending my Faith in spite of its adherents’ many short comings. My ability to “turn a blind eye” however is rapidly failing, not because anything has changed in my relation to the Faith, but because the abhorrent attitudes and behaviour of so many Orthodox Christians has become metaphysically dysfunctional – a lot of people below the age of 40, now follow the ritual without the spiritual. This approach has reached such epidemic proportions, that many are guilty of what the Protestants have always argued – i.e. that all we’re capable of is meaningless spectacle without any real relationship to God.

Those who know me, know I have always argued that our lack of reverence for God and worship is a direct outcome of the Faith being locked behind ethnic languages – especially in counties like Australia i.e. not being able to worship in the language in which one thinks can’t help but seed such a religious disaster. If the basis to the issue was that simple though, all one would have to do is change the language of the service and the problem would be corrected. Unfortunately, it’s becoming obvious that much more than language is to blame.

The problem also includes how “transplanted peasant culture and parishioner ignorance” has been fostered for generations, so much so, that many people born into Orthodoxy genuinely believe that as long as you go through the motions of the Faith, you are religious, (spiritually cleansed and ultimately saved). I’ve lost count of the number of people I know who are Atheists, but who show up every year at Pascha (Easter), hold the fast, attend services and even take communion though they don’t believe in Christ, let alone God. The religion is just a subset of their ancestral nationalisms and nothing has been done to educate and in turn discourage such an approach.

Which brings me to my main point – at a time when we should be reflecting on Christ’s suffering and sacrifice for humanity; at a time when we should be trying to emulate His infinite compassion for all creation; and at a time when we should be repenting from our dysfunctional and destructive natures – most of my brethren are obsessed with the deprivation of ritualistic fasting and unable to wait for their orgy of over indulgence come Sunday morning around 3:00 am. So much for faith helping with one’s personal evolution and the fast being a personal sacrifice we offer back to God!

The fact that Australia’s Orthodox will smash millions of battery hen eggs then toss those eggs into bins, seems to be a non-issue – it doesn’t matter that there’s an inconsistency between Christ’s message of compassion and how these animals suffer unspeakable miseries in order to produce a resource that just gets wasted. The fact that countless animals will be slaughtered for an overindulgence that is not necessary (especially when we have grains like amaranth, chia, quinoa which use far less of the planet’s resources) and that we openly ignore how much of the earth’s human population doesn’t have enough to eat on a daily basis – is conveniently forgotten as more meat is shovelled into already overfed mouths. The fact that Orthodox parishioners don’t even know what the term Theosis means, how it is a corner stone of their own religion and how their cultural based lifestyles are the antithesis of Christ’s message of openness, temperance, balance and an ongoing focus on God – doesn’t seem to matter – but then again why should it, when vast numbers of Australia’s Orthodox Christians don’t even believe in God let alone the Trinity or the theology of the Faith.

Maybe I’m just being picky here, but I still think that when we remove the spiritual basis of a religion, it just becomes superstition. Albeit a complex form of superstition, but a superstition none the less. I’m just glad my grandmother isn’t alive to see what the descendants of the post war migrants in Australia have done to her beloved Faith. Rather than it being a means to an end i.e. the ongoing struggle to emulate Christ, it has become a non-sustainable end in itself.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – April 2009

This piece of verse belongs to the “Growing Up” anthology and was written in April 1988. It’s a minimalist piece that captured simple feelings I was experiencing when visiting Brisbane’s Expo 88.

The highlighted author for this week is another scientist – Steven Hawking , specifically his book “A Brief History Of Time“.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – April 2009

This is another recent poem and falls into the ungrouped category. The piece is a tribute to Betty Cutlack, one of the few people in our neighbourhood that made us feel genuinely welcome when we bought our place. Betty’s passing deeply affected the feel of the street – it suddenly got a lot more impersonal – a sign of our non-communal times I suppose. Apparently, she lived in her house (which her husband built) for over 50 years. Her husband, who passed away back in 2004, also has a poem dedicated to him i.e. “A Neighbour Weeding”

Unfortunately I have no highlighted author for this week.

Readers might have noticed however, that I’ve fixed up the navigation and layout of the blog’s side bar. With a bit of luck, I’m hoping to improve more of the structure of the site in the near future. I’ll keep you abreast of any such developments.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – April 2009

This week’s poem: The Jolly Bunch – was written back in 1987 as a compilation of various experiences I had while catching late night trains at Dutton Park station. In all instances, I was on may way home from university – a place which I hated from the start because of its impersonal nature. I never seemed to tire of observing people’s behaviour however and was often more interested in the personalities on campus as well as the train passengers to and from home. What I was formally studying took a distant second place to my people studies. :) The poem’s structure also pays homage to the essay read out loud in English class by John Cusack’s character in the Rob Reiner film “The Sure Thing”. The piece is very much tongue and cheek and was never intended to be taken seriously.

This week’s highlighted author is: Mem Fox.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – March 2009

This piece is another recent poem and falls into the ungrouped category. Its central theme covers how insensitive many men are in regards to their wives’s feelings. It’s based on an amalgam of marriages I’ve observed over the years and includes some of my own marriage’s experiences.

This week’s highlighted author is: Arthur Conan Doyle.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – March 2009

This piece belongs to the “Growing Up” anthology and was written in February 1989 – the exact date of writing is unknown. The poem is a juxtaposition on last week’s verse which highlighted how I no longer enjoyed returning to the memories of my childhood. I think enough time has past for me to accept that my childhood wasn’t all “it was cracked up to be”.

In regards to this week’s poem – it explores how our imaginary playmates, hang around even when we choose to ignore them and/or no longer need them. As in the lyrics to “Puff The Magic Dragon“, I think these friends are probably an extension of our human psyche. Who knows, they may even have their own self awareness.

And finally, I’m starting to regret that I didn’t publicly release these poems much sooner – some pieces may have been of use to others during the course of the last 20 years. I suppose releasing them now, ensures its still better late than never, plus, I tend to forget that I didn’t have the luxuary of the World Wide Web back in 1989 (to digitally publish this material). ;)

This week’s highlighted author is: Mark Twain.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – March 2009

This piece is a recent ungrouped poem and captures a sense of well being that occurred while stumbling around outside our house. Such moments of grace tend to be few and far in between – especially for individuals like me. One can only hope that their frequency increases, but then again, without life’s little disappointments and emotional tortures, one’s fountain of verse does have a tendancy to dry up. ;)

This week’s highlighted author is: Ray Bradbury.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – March 2009

I now understand,
That all I saw
Were the multitudes
Of colourful flowers,
Produced by the weeds.
Never realising,
That the weeds themselves
Could rise up
And strangle the admirer,
Whose back was turned.

Yet that was then.
Today, with graying stubble
My sandy lot is cleared,
Made ready
For the growing of food.
And I finally know,
That everything is OK
As I carry my hoe upright,
Into the crisp warmth
Of the Bay’s glassy sunlight.

Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2009

This piece of verse also belongs to the “Growing Up” anthology and was written in June 1988. It was my attempt to document what had happened to a work mate’s friend in the welfare sector. As a warning to readers, its quite a depressing piece, exploring the suicide of an individual who refused to seek clinical treatment for their mental illness.

I had thought this poem had been lost during one of the many “house moves” in my 20′s. Hopefully other missing pieces will now surface from the depths of my files.

Been a difficult seven days, so there’s no highlighted author for this week.

Kind regards – Vasilios Theodorakis – February 2009

This piece belongs to the “Growing Up” anthology and was written on Saint Patrick’s Day in 1988 – 17/03/88. The theme is fairly obvious i.e. wanting to talk to, and get to know someone (I had a crush on) but being too scared to do so. For better or worse, the poem highlights my naivety about women and relationships (even though I was already 21). Like many people of my generation, I had received no guidance or advice as to what a healthy and genuine relationship might entail. Unfortunately, I had also grown up with no useful adult role models and as a consequence, frantically read far too many autobiographies and biographies to compensate.

Readers will find that a number of my poems, from 1988 to 1998, follow a similar theme but the period thankfully ends in identifying what a lasting relationship isn’t i.e. that the warm fuzzy infatuation has nothing to do with finding a long term companion for oneself. It also took a while to understand that good relationships were reciprocal and based on gentleness, kindness and affection. My wife Helen, who epitomises all these traits, proved that it pays to persist with one’s search for a life partner.

This week’s highlighted author is: Brian Greene – in particular his novel “The Elegant Universe“.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – February 2009

This piece comes from a series of poems written in 1987 for the “Growing Up” anthology. Like many of these early poems, the exact date of writing was not recorded. The posted date is therefore an approximate – I do know, that the poem was written close to Christmas 1987 and was a response to a female shop assistant I worked with at the time.

As usual, I’ve also added a link to another author I greatly admire: Isaac Asimov.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – February 2009

Hope had filled
The dingy of marriage;
Cedar solid,
It pushed off from uncertainty,
Travelling north
And sometimes finding,
All it had
Between its sails,
Were her sobs
In the laundry,
His shame
At his ways.

Still, their stubbornness
Kept them afloat,
Minimising each other’s distress
And capturing each other’s strength.
Eyes locked on the horizon,
The direction
Of their negotiated compass,
Often corrected for life’s turbulence.
While the deviation
Of the field’s flickering,
Was deemed acceptable
In spite of each other’s shortcomings.

Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2009

This piece comes from a series of ungrouped poems written in 2001.

I’ve also added a link to another author I greatly admire: Greg Bear.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – February 2009

Irrespective of what mainstream Australian’s claim the day represents – all that really matters is that far too many Indigenous Australians feel disrespected (yet again) by the celebrations that occur on this day. Aboriginal people’s feelings need to be acknowledged and a more appropriate and inclusive date identified as Australia Day.

Unfortunately, where we live there are no protests to help mark the day. We do however live close to a park that used to be a meeting ground for the Indigenous clans of Moreton Bay. It was used for gatherings for 1000′s of years and we know this (from historical records) because of the midden mounds (that were present at the location) and the fact that local Aboriginal people continued to meet there right into the twentieth century.

To highlight how much mainstream Australian’s valued this meeting place, the Queensland Government forcibly moved the last of the Indigenous people that met there (its unknown what happened to them) and the local council decided to dump its rubbish on the site for a number of decades. The tip was eventually covered up with top soil, ovals were built for sport and a park for dogs was created. Finally the name was changed from Black’s Camp to something more mainstream – Elanora Park, and the fact that the location was important for the local clans was expunged from the public record. The signage at the Park (to this day) makes no reference to its significance to the original peoples.

For two years now, my wife and I have visited the location on Australia Day to pay our respects to the original people who lived on the land that we now live on. This year I wrote the following piece for us to read each and every year until this country acknowledges and begins to respect its Aboriginal people and its Aboriginal past. Health permitting I intend to keep reading this out loud under the figs, next to the mangroves (in the park) every 26th of January, or at least until a more appropriate date for Australia Day is chosen.

“Paying Our Respects – 26th January 2009″

Today we remember our Indigenous brothers and sisters who have been murdered, beaten, raped, diseased, displaced, ignored and forgotten for 221 years.

We remember that they met here peacefully on this midden mound whose name we no longer know.

We remember that here they rested, discussed and resolved problems that the different clans of the Bay encountered for thousands of years.

We remember that we are standing on land which they believed could not be owned but only looked after by humans – i.e. entrusted in guardianship. That all people belong to the land but that the land cannot be owned by any one person.

We remember that as a many Nationed peoples, they were invaded and that the land was never lawfully settled by the non-Indigenous peoples, as no treaties were ever signed with the original inhabitants, as no attempts were made to protect the original languages and culture, and that the original people’s presence was never acknowledged in any meaningful way.

Today we remember that picking this day as the national day of the country is an insult to the surviving Indigenous Australians and disrespects the Indigenous people who died and suffered over the last 221 years. We look forward to a time when this county’s national day is inclusive of all Australians, when its flag represents all Australians and its Head Of State is answerable only to Australians.

Sadly, we had the whole park to ourselves as we read this out loud and reflected on the day.

Personally I think the date on which we become a Republic should be celebrated as Australia Day – a neutral day that includes all people. For example the 1st July – six months from 1st January (Federation Day) might be a good date. Things that also need to be looked at simultaneously include: the republic, the flag, the governor general and the date of Australia Day.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – January 2009

This piece comes from a series of ungrouped poems written towards the end of 2008.

I’ve also added a link to another author I greatly admire: Oodgeroo Noonuccal.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – January 2009

This piece comes from a series of ungrouped poems written towards the end of 2008.

I’ve also added a link to another author I greatly admire: Charles Dickens.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – January 2009

This piece comes from a series of ungrouped poems written towards the end of 2008 and reflects on what people go through who manage various forms of P.T.S.D. (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

I’ve also added a link to another author I greatly admire: Albert Facey.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – January 2009

Though cutting it a bit fine, I should be finishing the year by uploading a single poem per week (as I had hoped). All things going well, I should also be able to stick to this minimum posting in 2009. Again a big thank you to all this blog’s readers who’ve hung around during an excruciating slow 2008.

In addition to Shadow Takes Reality I’ve also added some links to other authors, whose work I’ve read over the years. These include: John Chryssavgis, C.S. Lewis, Frank J. Tipler, Saint Andrew Of Bethsaida and Saint Nicholas Of Myra.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – December 2008

When queried about this,
The Gorukle replied -
We thought you’d return.
We left everything as it was,
For you were our friends, our brothers, our sisters,
And these things were not ours to take.
It never dawned on the Christians
Who reached the promised land
To extend such a courtesy.
The Christians deserved all that was abandoned
And left nothing for the Moslems to return to -
Moving into their homes almost immediately.
And yet, to this day
My kind
Claim to be the better human beings.
Now why is that again?

Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2008

These people
Were never family!
Thank goodness
For the Grant-ed role model,
Which now fills the void
The emotional chasm left behind
By those who tainted the sacred.

Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2008

“Traumateous Polemous” (translation – injuries of war)
Was my grandfather’s term.
I sometimes wonder
If he imagined
Such things could occur
Within the sterile walls
Of Suburbia.

Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2008

The aim now is to recommence work on this blog at some point in 2008 and maintain a regular upload each week – irrespective of how small that upload might be. Grandiose expectations of editing and uploading 4 poems a week have fallen by the wayside and just uploading a single piece might prove more realistic. My appologies to people who have been visiting here since the 11th of January. My condition is such that I don’t have much control over its state, and have to work its management into my daily routine. This often means it takes precidence over everything else – especially when it gets acute.

I’ve finally added some wiki links to two other authors I greatly admire – Robert Louis Stevenson and Nikos Kazantzakis. Both these writers were brilliant social commentators in their time, challenging issues of inequity every step of the way. In spite of no longer being a practicing social worker myself, social justice is never too far from my mind, no matter what type of work I’m carrying out. Thus, my ongoing interest in the writings of such people like Stevenson and Kazantzakis.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – October 2008

Awake at last
We know there will be
No further sleep,
For sentience
Demands action
When faced with truth
And our earthly role,
To voice the voiceless,
Must be placed on a pedestal and heeded,
In spite of the hordes
And what they might do,
When finally, we speak!

Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2008

Her husband,
In conversation – lit up her eyes.
Missed desperately,
She spoke fondly
Of his construction at the back.

Her neighbour – the one that stayed,
Known as possum man to the kids,
Bugger Lugs to her.
Observing his antics, eyebrows raised,
She tolerated his ways – taken with fistfuls of salt.

Our house – the one on the corner,
Forever labeled the Kelly’s,
Held stories of her son and their daughter,
Asleep on the floor,
More comfortable it seemed, than his bed at his mum’s.

Our family,
She greeted with a Xmas type card,
Embraced without judgement
She snuck it past doors,
Wondering on tip toe – who we might be.

Our presence,
In time – seeded many a smile.
Rewarded – now and then, with a cup of tea or a beer.
A little something, she’d say, to toast
The couple – she was certain, would stay.

Her dottering gone – I still radar the yards.
Peering over our fence,
As much as our cat – who continues to hope,
That her saucer returns,
With his contraband milk and a pat on the back.

Dedication (For Betty Cutlack)
Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2008

Before I do however, I’d like to thank the site’s many readers for their feedback and support from (across the globe). Its been very rewarding to discover that material which was stored away in archive boxes (and forgotten) for so many years is of some use and enjoyment to people out there on the Net.

This last set of poems, rounds up the year’s uploads to 52 – a good start I think, but there’s a lot more material to get through in the next few years.

The poems for this week include:
- Learning
- Human Within Humanity
- Once Upon A…
From the “Growing Up” anthology

And:
- Curvature
From a series of ungrouped poems written in 2001.

All things going well, I look forward to resuming my verse uploads in January 2008. Until then, keep safe and have a wonderful holiday/religious period.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – December 2007

And:
- Cleared City Land
From a series of ungrouped poems written in 1998.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – November 2007

And:
- Beginnings
From a series of ungrouped poems written in 1997.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – November 2007

The poems for this week take the total number to 40. Editing and uploading has occurred for 13 consecutive weeks.

The titles include:
- Love
- Parting With An Incapacitated Friend
- Completeness
From the “Growing Up” anthology

And:
- Monkeyed
From a series of ungrouped poems written in 2006.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – November 2007

Lets review what has worked so far and what hasn’t…

What Has Worked:
- three poems a week.
- poems in the order in which they were written.

What Has Not Worked:
- not uploading any recent poems.
- audio recordings which are taking far too long to generate.
- discovering mistakes in poems that have already had their audio and text uploaded to the site.

Because of the above issues, my weekly upload will now be based on the following:
- editing and uploading the next three poems in the order in which they were written.
- uploading a more recent poem each week.
- not carrying out any audio recordings until I’m certain a poem has reached a static (and correct) form.
- adding an audio version (MP3) and a printable version (PDF) to a poem’s posting once I know a poem is stable.

What does this mean for visitors? Audio recordings will be added independent of text uploads (and only when I’m certain that I haven’t missed any editorial corrections). The number of poem uploads will increase to four per week i.e. three older poems and one recent poem.

This week will be the last of the three poem per week format. I’d like to thank the site’s many visitors for their patience while I continue to iron out “how to proceed” in populating the site with its content. :)

The poems for this week include:
- Poverty
- Friend
- Budgerigar

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – November 2007

Though this early writing is a genuine reflection of where I was at during the 1980’s, its not much of a reflection of what I write today. As a result, I ask that readers grimace and ‘bare with me’ as I get this early material online. I hope that the anthologies which follow “Growing Up” are more to people’s liking.

I’ve also realised that some pieces are primarily thoughts – diary entries on scraps of paper which don’t have any poetic form at all. I’ve decided that instead of trying to incorporate these pieces as poetry, I’ll upload the material to the prose section instead i.e. ensuring that the work is still documented and available, but not being passed off as poetry.

All pieces from this week’s selection are still part of the “Growing Up” anthology – the splice of “Growing Up” and more recent work will begin in a few weeks time week.

The interesting thing about this week’s work is that it includes poems with various forms of rhyme. Rhyme was a technique that I dabbled in before developing my own style. Rhyming schemes haven’t been used in the bulk of my writing, as I felt they set up to many restraints for what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it.

Again I’ve run out of time in regards to the audio versions – I will endeavor to get back to making recordings as soon as possible.

The poems for this week include:
- A Thought Of Peace.
- A Father’s Stand…
- The Loss Of Love?

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – October 2007

It includes:
- The Universe – Force
- Nationality
- Time

My voice is almost back to normal, so I should be able to add audio versions for all subsequent postings. I’ll also endeavour to add an audio component to the last three week’s worth of material. This may take about a month to complete.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – October 2007

Ironically, many of the hopes this adolescent wrote about – like not wanting to be a wage slave, did become my reality. (Not through choice mind you, but through circumstance – as a result, I have this to say to any young people out there – ‘be careful what you wish for, it may just come to pass!’) Because the ‘lad’s’ writing is so distant from what I do today, I’ve tried to keep the editing of these pieces to a minimum. In many ways, these poems have a greater (personal) historical significance than any poetic value – i.e. they track/highlight how my writing style developed. This first anthology was collated from 1983 through to 1990 and titled – “Growing Up”. It contains more than 50 pieces in total.

This week’s selection comes from 1983 and includes:
- Emptiness Within
- Recovery
- The Circle

I’ve also scanned some art work from this same era. The first image is of calligraphy I had created for the folder that housed all the poems (in this anthology). The second image is of a drawing I was going to use for the cover of the anthology i.e. if it ever got published. As I don’t intend to use this image, when I finally self publish this material, I thought it might be of some interest to web readers.

Unfortunately, my voice is still not 100%, so these poems will also have to wait for their audio to be added at a later date.

Finally, please keep in mind, that it wasn’t until 1987 that I started to add exact dates to pieces. As a result, poems from 1983 to 1986 are arranged in the order in which they were written and within the year in which they were written, but the actual date that they appear on this site is only an estimate.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – October 2007

In the meantime, this week’s selection includes:
- A Neighbour Weeding
- Out Of Mind
- Cleo The Cat

In addition to this I’ve finally added the about the author page to give readers some idea of who they’re dealing with here. :)

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – October 2007

The selection includes:
- Casting Off The Handed Down Toxin.
- Chaos In Sterility – The Western World…
- The Youth Wage.

In addition to this I’ve also updated the poetry index page, so that readers can view a complete list of poems at a glance. As of this week the site holds 21 pieces of verse in text and audio formats.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – October 2007

My appologies to people who’d like more regular verse, but at this stage, I can’t get more time off work.

Regarding what’s coming up in the next few weeks – hopefully, more information on the static pages; another week’s worth of early 1990s material; one more week’s worth of recent material – and then, I go all the way back to the start and begin systematically uploading poems and anthologies in the order in which they were written i.e. from 1983 onwards. The aim is to complete the “Growing Up” anthology first – before I do anything else.

As always – any NEW poems, commentaries, etc., I write, will be uploaded as I complete my editing process.

This week’s selection includes more poems from the early 1990s.
- An Order
- Going Home, To Rest…
- The Onward Struggle – Making A Place Of Our Own

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – September 2007

The selection includes more poems from the early 1990s.
- Me? You? …Us.
- Happy Endings…
- To Quell The Racism…

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – September 2007

The selection includes some of my favorites from 1994, 1993 and 1991.
- Cotton, Steel and Plastic.
- Soul Port
- Too Fast.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – September 2007

This week’s three pieces have been uploaded simultaneously instead of appearing in a staggered manner. Normally, this ‘site update’ will appear at the end of the week providing a summary of the work that has been undertaken in the last seven days.

So far I’ve been able to stick to the three poem per week (editing) quota, without too much trouble. i.e. As we’re in our third week of operation, the site has 9 poems (in text and audio formats)

In time I’ll be adding a little info about each poem, but this will be located on the index poetry page.

Now to this week’s selection – all poems come from 2001.
- A Lite Blanket, A Brick Wall…
- Soldier Blood
- W.T.C.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – September 2007

Death is just an interesting dinner table topic to many of these people – nothing more. The cult of ‘Ego’ and ‘Eternal Youth’ reigns supreme, and after that chardonnay washes down that expensive dinner, all thoughts of one’s place in the world are restored to ‘Normal’. They of course, will read this fragment of prose and think I am talking about someone else, but then again, that’s the way it should be – I expect…

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2007

The format of every recording is as follows: spoken track, background track and copyright notice at the end of each recording. Each anthology of poems will have a different backing track, and ungrouped poems from the last four years, will initially be released without such a track. The backing track is associated with the anthology’s theme. Being an MP3 file, title and author information should also be viewable on people’s MP3 equipment or computers.

You can download the audio version of each poem by right clicking your mouse and selecting ‘save target as…’ (Windows) or ‘save link…’/'download linked file…’ (Mac) from the displayed menu. This will allow you to archive a copy to your desktop or harddrive. Once I’ve uploaded more material, I will also be adding the site’s RSS feed to podcast services like iTunes etc, which should make it easier to locate and obtain audio copies of poems.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – August 2007

Though we all do this (to some extent), all that really counts is what we “know to be true”, i.e. that which exists beyond belief and which presents itself “after the dark night of the soul” (after your Faith has been destroyed by doubt and reconstructed using material that you “know to be true”). Let me put it another way – to quote Seth in the movie “City of Angels” – ‘some things are true whether you believe in them or not’. The problem is, we often ignore what we “know to be true”.

For example, you can construct as many layers as you want to hide the facts, but reality and existence are not changed by those layers. Just look at all the misery in people’s lives, even though they’ve constructed and surrounded themselves with layers we now know as lifestyles! One can choose to live such lifestyles, or one can choose not to live such lifestyles – its up to the individual – the principle behind it is still the same – free will. What doesn’t change however is that the “lifestyle” doesn’t alter a person’s underlying reality.

A friend of mine, recently raised the fact that she knows her ‘ego wants it (life) to be more sensational and more exotic’, so she’s making decisions accordingly. “The ego wants it (life) to be more sensational and more exotic…”? What path have we convinced ourselves to trundle down? Is she for example, about to make decisions that will lead her into “selfless service” or into “having an adventure and feeling good about herself”! What I don’t understand is this, if one REALLY wants to work with the needy, what’s wrong with helping the poorer Indigenous Communities in one’s own country. I can count on one hand the number of schools that teach children their Indigenous Language and English, their Culture and Mainstream Culture, etc. especially in countries like Australia. Few here, want to work with or even respect this country’s original people. No one wants to LEARN their language, and it continues to be an indictment on this nation as to how many Indigenous Australians are not treated as equals!

We should be ensuring that our decisions (regarding selfless service) are part of the solution, not part of the problem. I’m sick and tired of “community workers” going into other contexts across the globe (i.e. other countries), perpetuating the colonialist model of the 19 Century, setting themselves up as the experts and teaching the “locals” how good things can be. I’ve been through this again and again with misdirected social workers and I can’t stand the outcome – both the inflated egos and the downtrodden locals. If one wants to go down this path – no one can really stop them, but they shouldn’t expect others to support an action that patronises another group of people. This approach has already been perpetuated by far too many Westerners. If one ignores history, because they think its boring, one risks making the same mistakes again and again.

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2007

The best any of us can do (as most religions tell us), is to sit still (stay put), know what we are good at and use that in service without any expectation of reward (or revelation). To think we are being rewarded (and important enough to be guided) is the complete opposite of our call to (humble) service. I can’t imagine the Theotokos was into what she could get out of the deal – who in their right mind would hand over their “will” completely – she of course could and did – it was her gift to humanity, her LEGACY to the future, her attempt at Theosis (which is yet to be matched). There was the initial confusion (of pregnancy) of course and then a lifetime of follow through based on her gifts. And yes, many (of the rest) of us lead a lifetime of confusion, before there’s a follow through based on our gifts. But at least some of us, find ourselves walking into the stable at the 11th hour! So if we’re advised by our religion to sit still – it means to sit still! One could spend the rest of one’s life galavanting around the world, but that’s just another form of running from a commitment to service!

Take responsibility for where things are at, then make the most of what you can do. Waiting for signs is more about ego and our interpretation of reality than about reality itself i.e. Intrinsic Truth is always right before our eyes, no matter which direction we turn our faces (even when we turn our faces away from God) – there are no need for signs. Life is the sign, breath is its proof – all we need to do is open our eyes…

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2007

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2007

I continue to view reality through Trinitarian (Orthodox Christian) eyes, though its highly unfashionable and often gets me into trouble.

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2007

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2007

Also, please keep in mind that my work will not necessarily appear at the start of the blog as each piece will be accurately date stamped e.g. 20 August 1991, in order to authentically highlight when it was written. This means that a new release will not necessarily appear as the latest posting, but will show up within the site. You’ll need to make use of the RSS feed (from the site) to know where and in which time period the new piece has appeared.

And finally, thank you to friends and family who’ve unconditionally supported and encouraged the creation of this site to promote my poetry (and other writing). A special thank you to my wife Helen, who harrassed me daily (for almost ten years) to begin releasing my work publicly. Helen – I’m sorry its taken this long, but better late than never. :)

So, I thank you all again for your patience, and hope the material you find on this website proves worthy of your belief in it, and in me.

Cheers – Vasilios Theodorakis – August 2007

To voice a goodbye
Free falls away
Favouring fate
That follows
Endings of uncrossed paths.
This thought, again replayed -
Is layed out in full,
Brushed with care,
And cradled for a time.
Turned, and again checked for its emotional ID.

Unlike fe-lines
Our kind, cannot predict
The seasons as once we did.
Nor, pre-empt such unseen loss.
Not being there could not be helped.
Cleo waited as long as she could,
Hung her thanks
Upon the decades of love, woven right around the house,
And heeded the call of her origin -
Returning home, one last time.

What she would’ve liked,
Was for all to recall
That, were it not for this family
Of open hearts
And unchecked time,
Trust would not have transformed from bud to bloom -
And 26 years
Of connected
Sighs, laughs and affection felt,
Could not have come to pass.

This Schrödinger’s cat was truly alive -
Thanks to the few who stepped up to the task,
Peered into the box,
And on tip-toes, pulled her little self into their lives.
She was that lifetime plaque
Of reciprical commitments,
Often drapped around the necks of the Decent,
And there could be no regrets
About such an arrangement,
Now could there.

Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2007

In role
Us – the Outsiders,
Witness their ‘fade away’
As another torso
Is lost to the faceless crowd
Of sensibility.
Thank goodness, these brothers and sisters
Have a place to call home – the Mall.
Without it,
I shudder at the thought of their fate.

Audio Version (Podcast – MP3 / 90sec / 707kb)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2007

Dedication (For Rachel Robinson)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2007

Abandoned by light and sugared by thorns,
Youth declare meaningless wisdom
As the basis to their body’s vacant room.

And somehow, this has come to stand
For modern insight – hard driven inspiration;
Even though, none of the words
Challenge reality,
And the Oracle
Of the Room never replies
To the half hearted questions,
Posed by a whole generation
Of self strangled,
Still born adults.

Our life giving Spark,
Has media mutated
Into a naked Primate,
Dressed in plaid
And given to shouting,
The ego’s own chant – “Who do I love? Myself!”
So much for the archetypal need to look beyond -
To seek out lyrics, folklore and fairy-tales.
So much for ionic philosophy and religion -
Or the desire to produce instead of consume.

The ‘Y’s, no longer know how
To fill the Void
When the camp fires go out.
Instead, they catch themselves
Staring off into the distance,
Dreaming up nothing,
And hoping that their magical consoles
Will re-ignite tomorrow,
Allowing the world
To offer up Noise! – More blessed Noise!

Such an approach, was once an anathema -
Known to regress our species’ evolution.
But now, all manner of glitter balls take centre stage
Locking in the legacy -
Of talons for the sleek, manure for the brave!

Audio Version (To Be Added)
New Word (Monkeyed – adj. regressing the evolution of one’s own species.)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2006

This, I have witnessed.
This, do I know.
Your self averted,
A priest’s son dies,
Promises are made,
Visits considered,
But nothing occures.
Touched by your play,
A creature is hurt,
Un-gathered by arms, killed,
Not nutured to death,
But denied its extension of expression.
Consumed by your status,
A friend is felled, unwitnessed,
Subjected to blow after blow,
The silent assault
Mimics the clamour
Of a synthesized Voice.

And were I to reflect on this,
Were I to really trouble myself by what I’ve seen,
My thoughts would be forced to raise the question:
Who are these people?
People, whose behaviour has been less wholesome
Than that of my darkest enemies.

Though we began our journey together.
Though we staked out
A claim within Holy Walls.
I’ve come to accept
That we do not travel the same Road
Or follow the same Source
And this has saddened me, greatly.
One can’t help but wonder,
What will it take for ‘You’ to return
To the ‘Way’.
A death? A birth? A disability?
Or are you so charmed,
As to think, you will make it to the end of life
Without your cocoon being pierced
By an instrument of God.
I only pray, that you are spared the knowing-ness
That that instrument
Is often the scalpel, of Christ’s own hand

Dedication (For complacent Orthodox Christians)
Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2005

His silouette
Now etched in my mind,
Is seeded whole -
An archetype of peace.
And I am
Forever grateful
For his moment of grace,
Which was sprinkled
Through a window,
Upon a neighbour,
Whom
He never knew.

Dedication (For Stan Cutlack)
Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2004

Too bad the ‘cultured’
Only know you as ‘the drunk’,
And not the gentleman
That you truly are.

Dedication (For Joseph Plunkett)
Audio Version (Podcast – MP3 / 42sec / 331kb)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2003

Simple complexity
Begets
Low cost richness,
For males
Of
Any Age.

Audio Version (Podcast – MP3 / 40sec / 315kb)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2003

Until next time
Then,
When all variables align,
And you stretch tall,
My hidden,
And ancient Friend.

Audio Version (Podcast – MP3 / 54sec / 425kb)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2003

But I fear
Its more likely,
That the sandpits
Of the mind
Will burn the fury
Of their eyes,
Into their hands,
And cause them
To gouge out
The sight
Of the First.

And now,
As countless innocents
Incinerate,
Within the distinctness
Of the Mind.
Impotent leaders
Dance political jigs,
Poking out tongues
While taunting the harmful,
Who’d happily scrape
More sanctity, off the lives, of those who remain.

Dedication (In Memory Of The World Trade Center Tragedy)
Audio Version (Podcast – MP3 / 55sec / 433kb)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2001

May their place
In this DNA space,
Grow in regression.

Dedication (For My Ancestors)
Audio Version (Podcast – MP3 / 60sec / 472kb)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2001

For
Each and everyone,
Now knows,
We are the centre
Of at least one universe -
Namely, our own.

Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2001

Taken from the deepest
Blue of seas,
Souls were broken,
Fed upon soil-less food
And ground, face first into the desert of safety.
But the desert
Finally turned to muddied water.
And the muddied water
Finally distilled to sea and sediment.
And the sea and sediment
Once again allowed us
To touch the deepest blue of our past.

So across the water
Curvature is again
Eyed by Byzantine Mariners,
Whose lookout,
Is now built upon the steps
Of Wynnum Natives.

The voice
Though silenced for millennia,
Is again rising
To glorify
Far more
Than a mythological phoenix.

And this time
It will praise
His Being proper.
“So be it!”
Shout the visible and invisible worlds,
May we not rest till it is done.

Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2001

So long lived
Amongst the elements,
My being
Was lip serviced
By fibro,
Fronting as home.

And now? I clutch at good fortune
Wondering, what next.
Were I
To entertain confidence,
The road ahead would be paved
By dreams and grace filled places.

Hence, as lids get laden
Goodness surrounds me,
Extended by the solidarity of brick against brick.
Something, unknown to me
Since childhood,
But comforting none the less.

Dedication (For Our Home)
Audio Version (Podcast – MP3 / 55sec / 433kb)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 2001

Dedication (For Helen)
Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1998

We are not what we seem.
We are the more,
The un-quashed voices
Of hearts
Pounding their way towards the beginning place,
Where honesty applauds
More loudly
Than Baroque patrons of old.

We are ourselves,
Beyond that of strangers
Whose glances are washed away
By the turning of a head.
And in part, we are the moment
Raised high
Like a banner
Announcing our stake in this – life’s lottery to be…

Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1997

All I have known is cotton, steel and plastic.
Of a brother’s failure,
Of a sister’s pain,
Of the self, forever before me.
Temptation by the now is everywhere,
But I cannot forget what I have seen.
Your shallowness is my nausea,
And I will be judged for judging,
But so be it.
For my heart tells me you are wrong
And this I cannot ignore.
Other things I might,

But this, I cannot.

Audio Version (Podcast – MP3 / 68sec / 534kb)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1994

Being driven and drawn forward
By the knowing
That we are struggling
For that which is timeless;
While those against us
Are fixating on that which has passed.

Audio Version (Podcast – MP3 / 72sec / 565kb)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1993

The invitation has always
Been there – the choice to rise beyond the clouds of fatalism
To turn, dive and soar through the structural imposition,
Like the pure hearted crow
Who never allows its own beauty
To be misaligned by the visual perception of blackness.

And like the crow,
We are all descendants
Of the forcibly transplanted.
Continuum of the Body Community
Broken – we have choice to maintain the isolation
Or reconnect – once again to form Church.

I have come close to stepping away forever
And this has scared me.
To follow the face of the spiritually punch drunk
Or the face of the clear hearted… Which will it be?
I must remember my whys, and be still
Until my hows, guide my heart – placing it in God’s Palm.

I long for the Strength
To ensure I pursue this;
Otherwise the evolution of my soul is jeopardised
And this, I know… can easily come to be.

Audio Version (Podcast – MP3 / 95sec / 745kb)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1993

It is there that the breeze is never harrowing,
That the sun’s warmth reaches the marrow
And powers the soul,
In ways known only in times of fables and legends.
Where the nobility fought gallantly without bloodshed.
Where honour knew respect and caring as the bottom line,
And dragons, were demons that we could detect
Not charaded away within the forms of humanity.

Through this corner of my Passion
I see what each really is
And adjust accordingly.
From here I am fed the Fire and the Water,
The Strength that does not end

And filling my connecting force,
My window of clarity and interaction
With the world,
Goes on
Always opening out to my soul and Beyond.

Audio Version (Podcast – MP3 / 77sec / 605kb)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1993

Its residence then, is not forever.
Each chip it makes, each take,
Though sometimes mortally wounding
May cease its cause through Truth.

We in turn, create the oracle of humanity;
The living dream outside of myth and speculation.
And when the fruit trees bloom
In multitudes across the planet,

We know that the struggle was not in vain;
And that all peoples can smile at their sun
And not risk persecution,
By those who smile at the sand.

Audio Version (Podcast – MP3 / 54sec / 425kb)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1992

We’re going backwards folks,
Just ever, such a little bit…

Audio Version (Podcast – MP3 / 77sec / 605kb)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1992

All this
When one need only
Sun and Sky,
Earth and Wind,
Water
As a soothing friend.
All this,
And more in One:

Sadness, that can’t be felt;
Anger, that can’t be seen;
Happiness, that never frees;
Peace, that can not be…

Audio Version (Podcast – MP3 / 55sec / 433kb)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1992

There was a young man.
Alone with no leaves,
But ever so many books — and one,
An isolated spine, which sat quite still
And read so blank in its non-being.
Within this he had a dream
And in it, Saint Nik – a guy with an affectionate fuzzy beard,
Handed him pen and ink
And rumbled, “Write what you will, when you will, as you will.”

There was a person,
Standing at ease below the grandeur of a Moreton Bay Fig,
Holding all Traditions with equal regard and respect;
Remembering the filling up of paper with mind,
While a little girl tugged at a trouser leg
And held out a thought plate
Saying, “I’m done.”
For her, the new young, there was no need to be told
Explore as you will.

For it had come to be – that one was born of freedom
Where chapters could always be written,
And bottling into kegs of fear was only a memory
In a passing youth’s imagination…

Dedication (For Mal McCouat)
Audio Version (Podcast – MP3 / 103sec / 808kb)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1992

Malamati,
So long we’ve both waited.
You, for a future for our lineage.
Me, for a life.
Tonight both dreams joined,
To bridge the ravine
Turned on by wars and generations of walking dead.
But the light flows again.
I accepted your beckoning
To come,
And you accepted my reciprocation,
And smiled at me.
And as we walked the air
It became real.
A solid link created by souls
Whose history went wrong
And broke the unbreakable.
But Creation remade through two hearts – one past, one present,
And as we parted
You said you’d await my return.
Walking to our new home
I turned and looked back.
Behind, the glorious kingdoms
Of Asia Minor glowed.
In front, the sparkling mist
Of dreams
Waiting to be moulded
Into new realities;
Even greater futures and worlds
Than our Emperors did know.
And there, in this time
Will walk a girl called to brilliance,
Who will be your own.
And her line will continue the nobility
For she will be the first
Princess since yourself.
And what I have guarded for you
May at last be released.

Mentor, my mentor
Our embers burned low,
But look, we finally have futures
And in them,
Immortality and children.
Life in its full
And the Kingdom lives on
Through an unbroken line.
Corrected at last,
By souls who reached out
In the twilight
When the rest thought
We were dead
And the ravine had eaten well.
Throughout the seen and unseen
We clasped hands
And made whole again.
And that’s all that matters.
It is not for their eyes,
It was for us and our descendants.
Others need not know
That we are healed
From their lives.

And so we stand…

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1991

Parents turn away,
Professing deafness
At
Such thoughts…

Audio Version (Podcast – MP3 / 61sec / 480kb)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1991

Triggered by laughter and lemonade trophies,
The recline in observation is complete;
Diving in, one savours the flavour
Spontaneously scribed between souls.
Heads raised – we glimpse
Good wishes recorded in the chronicles of heaven.

Where scores are kept,
To moor our so’s…

Audio Version (Podcast – MP3 / 49sec / 386kb)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1990

For there is a Meadow
And Daisy behind your facade;

To good to remain unknown,
And I will know it before my end.

Audio Version (Podcast – MP3 / 23sec / 183kb)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1990

Audio Version (Podcast – MP3 / 49sec / 386kb)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1990

Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1990

And thus, the stone filled statue stands.
Trapped in the place where love will never be!

Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1990

It seems, my grip is slipping.
I must fall and become… adult!

Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1990

Alone we must gain its glow beyond par,
Facing our heart’s, own pierced hole,
That bleeds sacred rain the world cannot see,
And beats in reversed fashions of love.

Then can we know that healing light works,
And through its own means touches the core,
By infinite hope that comforts the soul,
And helps us to form a measured out life.

Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1989

For below the sheath, it lives but still.
Awaiting times,
Which cannot kill.

So, will it rise to cleanse our souls?
Caress our worries?
Save our goals?

Futile to think, thoughts like these -
As resurrection lies,
Through hands and dreams.

Not in waiting or wanting spells,
Which facade the love
Yet ring the bells.

Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1989
(Poem From 1989 – exact date of writing unknown)

Unfortunately…
      It never quite works out that way.
      The Creator, it would seem, has an admirable sense of humour;
      Tossing someone else’s left overs into the solution stew,
      Just when its about to be served.
Yet…
      Even this complication does not phase her.
      She rises up,
      Takes it with a grain of sodium chloride replacement,
      And knuckles down to a few more hours of bartering.

Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1989

Such warmth… aahhh… drawn from the stills of Antarctic.
Such sweetness… oohhh… modeled on the taste of fermenting gall.
What could ‘top off’ such a script,
Rooted in a tangle of pain and unsatisfied expectations?
One thing I tell you… one thing… he said.
A silence, a withdrawal, an isolation ‘par excellence’.

And so it was…

Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1989
(Poem From 1989 – exact date of writing unknown)

Its true – we all grow up,
Expectations are laid down in concrete – a distraction for sure.
“Adult, ah ha… mature, maybe… therefore wise?”
The problem is we all assume wisdom comes with age.
No wonder society stumbles around in a coma most of the time.
Why don’t we allow people to learn from their mistakes,
Accrue wisdom before children,
And then assume they can make useful decisions.

If we don’t, I’m sure we’ll continue to await
With “baited breaths”
For guidance to spring forth from the foetuses of the world.
So sift through what you’ve heard – but carefully.
Be still, and grab the gems as they’re laid out by artisans.
And above all – avoid spending an eternity wondering
Why that initial “wisdom” offered from the crib
Was so useless…

Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1989
(Exact date of writing unknown.)

Twist away, and tear your heart…

Strike at the evil and blind the eye;
It must not see the hell we preserve;
It must not see the source of strength
Which drives the revenge of the wounded soul,
And shatters life, which had shattered zest.

“We are Christians!” we shout to the cause.
“We are holders of truth and of glorious light!”
But darkness dwells behind greying suits,
Bitterness reigns within the sight,
And daggers are drawn to advance the time.

What way to live a life so short!
At best seek out the tactics still;
At worst cut down the kicker’s hand,
And quell the pain through raging force,
Struck at last in conquered air…

Irony wins above both fields;
As neither sees their blood stained hands,
Which answer silent to the call,
And cast out codes and words of warmth,
And raise a crown that neither claims!

Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1989
(Exact date of writing unknown.)

I speak of the moon on the steps to the stars,
Where teddy bears rest in their travels of sleep;
And gasp at the horrors of peopled new hats,
Which darken the rooms of classical souls.

I speak of the sun that spins through our hearts,
And tares at the scars lodged deep by the air;
Which presses and leaves in bursts of fine wind,
Then runs and hides when all else is done.

I speak of the warmth that’s lost to the cold,
And the cold that leads to competent pain;
Yet the march to its death is not of ‘our’ heart,
And should always but end like the knife in the grave!

Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1989
(Exact date of writing unknown.)

Once left behind in air of want,
They shadow walk till life’s own end,
And then still sit as canines do,
Awaiting steps on woven ground.

In spite of this they share our dreams,
And hope again to raise their voice,
To speak as one like children do,
In praise of us and living well.

But most adults can’t see them now,
Their freshness and, brightness calmed,
These friends are lost in time and space,
And drawn far out of contacts slack!

Audio Version (To Be Added)
Copyright © Vasilios Theodorakis 1989
(Exact date of writing unknown.)